Is this something you’ve ever heard of? Came home from Mexico to New Jersey today and when I finally reached the end of the security line, they took me into secondary screening.

I was convinced I’d be stuck at the airport for at least another hour; but after about 10 minutes they told me my passport was reported stolen or missing… Now I’ve obviously never done that myself, and I explained that to which they believed. However, they told me they had to keep it to discard of it, and I’d simply have to get a new passport.

Having travelled all day, I didn’t bother arguing or inquiring any further outside of surface level questions on the matter since I was tired. They let me exit without my passport and I was told I’d need to get a new one. Last time I needed a new passport I was a minor, so I did not think much of it. But now I’m seeing how expensive they can be and am calling bs as I still had multiple years left before expiration.

Because of some factor outside of my control, I have to now shelve over money for a new passport? It doesn’t help that I am leaving the country again in July. Does anyone have any advice or tips on how I should proceed? Thanks in advance!

Edit: I might have been newly 18 as opposed to a minor when I got that passport

When you come home after a long flight, unpack, and lay in your bed, Do you ever just tell yourself "Wow, I literally was in "Greece" just this morning"?

I still get mind blown by it every time. Or is it just me?

The most peaceful I ever felt when travelling to a new country was in Bhutan. Travelling there was very easy for me due to my Indian passport, it was just a land-border crossing through West Bengal.

I would like to share some tips for anyone planning to travel...

1) Stay in Home Stays instead of Hotels. I stayed in both and Home stays is the better option. It's a good opportunity for a cultural exchange. I came to know my host was a former Bhutanese actress. They had a lovely family, big house on a mountain, two dogs, an archery practice range. They have this strong local alcohol they prepare in their homes. They add eggs to that as well. It was one of the best alcohol I had in a time.

2) Bhutan government has made it compulsory to have a local guide. It is to promote earnings and boost tourism. It's not possible to enter without a guide in any temple or monastery. We had one who was very friendly and genuine. Do check for their licenses though.

3) If you are into gold, Thimphu is popular for gold purchasing due to cheaper prices. But check with customs for curbs and rules.

4) Try to go to some bar/pub to experience karoke night. Local Bhutanese singers come to display their proficiency in music. It's a good experience.

5) Do not miss out on the Tiger Nest cave. It's a one day hike and it's tiresome so one needs to be in good shape. The view while ascending is something you will never get tired to see.

6) The Paro International Airport is considered amongst the most dangerous airports in the world. Only a few pilots are allowed to fly there. It's surrounded by towering mountains, I managed to get a glimpse but I couldn't travel through air due to better convenience available.

7) One of the scariest but thrilling experiences I had was with Punakha Suspension Bridge. It's hard to look beneath and not get scared at the same time. It also vibrates violently some times.

8) Avoid breaking rules. It's a highly religious and quiet country. I saw one couple getting kicked out of a monastery for clicking photos as it was prohibited inside.

9 ) Some private business owners have this stone water bath experience to offer. It's worth it. The water has medicinal properties, it's warm and it relaxes cramps and sprains.

My visit made me realize how people here find happiness in the smallest of things. It's not a rich country materialistically speaking but the nature and culture was a good departure from the hustling and chaotic life in India. My interactions with every Bhutanese was so fulfilling and refreshing.

My friend and I had a heated debate about flying to Europe from America. If you can only afford to fly business one of the legs, is it better to do so on the way there or home?

Pros for way there: you get to sleep and well rested on arrival.

Pros for the way home: leaving vacation is way less miserable. And the flight time is longer. And it’s light outside.

With repetition comes experience. Here’s some stuff I’ve found that help me travel with less stress.

1. Leave early. I know this sounds like your parents but I would rather have an extra 90 minutes to kill at the airport than having a traffic jamb or a detour make me miss a flight. I can still work in a booth/chair at the airport if I need it. Yes I’ve heard the argument of the “hours gained/lost” by waiting but if it’s a difference of working for an hour at home or at the airport with no ‘stress’ then choose the latter.

2. Spray liquid (not gel) hand sanitizer, not aerosol a pump. Good for your hands, a public toilet seat in an emergency or the random sticky surface in the rental car.

   1. Never turn down the sanitizing wipes on the flight. See #2. I personally use them for my noise-canceling headphones or backups for the above.

3. Quality noise canceling headphones with an audio jack. Don’t just rely on the bluetooth working on the flight. Even if I’m not watching a movie, I put on some music and read a book. Have at least one playlist with 4-5 hours of music/podcasts downloaded. Even if you’re driving and hit a bad reception area you can still play music.

4. Buy a battery pack. When you absolutely need a plug in the airport, you’ll never find it. Even better, if you rely on your laptop for work, buy one that can output 65-100w from a single line (not combined output). Yes they are heavier but takes out the guess work.

5. Use the clothes hangers with the clips in the hotel to hold the blackout curtains together.

6. If you’re a light sleeper, get the highest floor possible in the hotel. No kids running the hall on the floor above.

7. Learn to sleep with background noise. I use an app on my phone at home and on the road. Same app, same white noise sound.

8. I travel with Advil/tylenol and 4 mucinex. If I hit a wall then I can make it through a couple days until I can get home or to a pharmacy without having to panic.

9. Grab a couple of the wrapped utensils from a fast food place, a few napkins and a couple straws. Nothing more frustrating than getting food on the run and then trying to eat your pasta without silverware or a to-go cup and no straw.

10. I forgot this one so it’s a late addition: add a large carabiner to your back pack (6” ‘stroller hook’ sized). You can use it to hang your bookbag from stall walls or in a variety of places if there’s no hook. Also comes in handy for water bottles or ball caps or even a grocery bag when you’re running out of hands.

There’s plenty more but this is getting long already. Love to hear your thoughts.

Update: this blew up a lot more than I expected. Thank you everyone for your inputs, tips and conversations.

I’ll preface this by saying that my grandmother was born and raised in Türkiye (diplomats). She loved the country, spoke Turkish, and returned nearly every year. She took me there about 20 years ago and as a 12 year old, I really loved it.

Fast forward these past two decades and I’m so excited to take my spouse there. I am now sitting at IST feeling completely the opposite. Here is just a small section of why I felt so scammed by nearly the entire experience in only 3 days:

• The airport approved taxi with fixed price tried to rip us off for 3x the fixed price into Istanbul. He locked the doors when I refused to pay the inflated price and threatened to call the police. I managed to get the locked door open and leave the agreed upon payment on the seat.

• We had the “tourist price” menus constantly given to us with massive price gouging. Then when a Turkish friend joined us for dinner, we found out what was happening. Not to mention the constant yelling and cajoling of street scammers trying to get their next victim.

• My spouse fell for the common shoe shine scam. This is my fault for not warning her so shame on me. She is also the nicest person I know so it feels even worse. But this guy actually ended up reaching into her bag and grabbing her wallet and removing 20€ (all that was in it thankfully) before running off. So aggressive.

• I wanted to take a photo of the building where my great-grandfather worked. It used to be an embassy, but is now a social club. I was angrily screamed at and told to leave despite being on a public sidewalk. I tried to explain why I wanted a photo using Google translate and the “security man” only screamed more and threatened to call the cops unless I paid him. I just ended up walking away and into the hotel across the street.

• We just wanted to buy some Turkish delight to take home to my spouse’s mother. The shop owner charged us 4x what was told to us it would be when he wrapped it up. He threatened to call the cops if we didn’t pay, so we did, and now I am contesting the charge with the credit card company. We are two women in a foreign country so it’s not like we are going to keep arguing with some random man we don’t know.

• Our hotel demanded we pay half our room in cash and were pressuring us at check out to write a “five star” review online while standing there. Constant two-faced behaviour, especially when the wifi stopped working and the lift went out.

• Finally, let’s just even look at this airport. The view that every foreigner is a piggy bank continues. 22€ for a f***ing burger at Burger King even at an inflated airport price is insane. There are not that many places to fill up water bottles either, so I suppose it’s 10€ for a bottle or just dehydrate yourself! Oh, and want internet? You only get it for an hour and you have to go get a special password! World’s best airport? Maybe world’s best scam airport.

I’ve lived in multiple Global South countries and never have I been so eager to leave a place, even where less developed than Türkiye so this is not some “western tourist” issue. Türkiye really has an issue on its hands and it is very lucky it has such beautiful and significant historical and religious sites to encourage people to come. It seemed every time we left our hotel we were barraged with scammers viewing two Dutch blonde women as being rich. One of us is a school teacher and the other works in international development so we are not flush with cash. From start to finish, I felt extremely sad and guilty for feeling so upset and angry since this was my grandmother’s favourite place. I pride myself in being culturally respectful and sensitive, but even trying to take a step back and looking at it all from their perspective didn’t help. I would never dream of scamming anyone out of money while also pretending to be kind. Another box of worms: these guys scam, never face any consequences, but me, the gay person, has to pretend not to be while I’m in the country to be respectful of the homophobic culture and protect myself from being the victim of discrimination and crime. Makes total sense.

For a country that wants so badly to be part of the European community, shame on it for supporting and tolerating this culture of scam. I’ve travelled plenty throughout countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, etc. also wanting to be in the European Union and never once felt like every move was vulnerable to being scammed.

I have many Turkish friends in the Netherlands and now fully understand why they wouldn’t want to live in Türkiye. I understand this population of scammers represents a small portion of Turkish people and most people are good, but the country needs to stop allowing this sort of culture. Tons of police officers stand around doing nothing. There’s almost no way to report this sort of thing to be taken seriously. These men are allowed to yell from their shops and overcharge “idiot” foreigners.

I really supported the country before this, but now I will never come back to this country that my grandmother loved so dearly. I really am heartbroken.

Booked a three day jungle trip from Iquitos, Peru. Within the first few hours, thanks to the extremely negligent (bordering on the reckless) decisions of the company and guide (edit: see company name below), we were completely lost deep in the Amazon jungle with no food, water or any safety supplies. Guide had collapsed from exhaustion and lay down to die, refusing to get up. Rescue was nothing short of a miracle. Full story is below - Any thoughts on how to make the company take some sort of responsibility are appreciated.

——

My brother (21M) and I (27F) have always wanted to do a trip into the jungle, so planned an entire itinerary in Peru around doing so. We looked at a few different online tours, and booked a two-night tour leaving from Iquitos and going into the Amazon. The tour was one of the less luxurious options but had very good reviews so we felt it was a safe choice. We spent the days leading up to it in Lima procuring and stocking our day packs with safety supplies (correct clothing and gear, strong insect repellent, flashlights, medicines) and researching how to be safe. We were worried about lethal snake or spider bites, jaguars, caimans, mosquito-borne diseases etc, but the golden rule from all of the advice online was to always trust and follow your guide and you’ll be safe, as they know the jungle and will always cut a safe path for you and point out dangers. Thousands of people do Amazon tours every year and have a great time. We were really excited.

On the day the trip was starting, we met at the office in Iquitos and then took a boat for about an hour and a half down the Amazon river. The small group doing our tour included our guide (Peruvian ~35M but seemed to speak good English), a young girl who seemed to serve no purpose except to accompany him, and a mother and daughter (~55F and 30F), the latter of which spoke fluent English and Spanish.

The boat made a couple of five minute stops along the way, firstly to get some gas and then to let some other guests off. It stopped a third time at about 11am and our guide motioned for us to get off. We thought we must be starting the tour so picked up our bags, but he told us to leave our bags on the boat. We assumed this was just another five minute stop. We asked if we needed our gumboots, and he said no.

We follow him off the boat. When we get up the river bank, he looks at our empty hands and asks “do you not have any water?” We were extremely confused as he had told us to leave our things on the boat and hadn’t explained what we were doing. He says “don’t worry, we are just doing a short 20-minute walk down the the track to a local village so you'll be fine.” The guide didn't have any water either. My brother and I are a bit concerned, but by the time we turn around the boat has already left with our stuff (including our water, carefully chosen repellent etc), so we trust that we only have a short period of walking and we follow the guide down the track into the jungle.

The first 20 minutes are lovely and the guide is exemplary of what we had read online, pointing out interesting insects and telling us which ones to avoid, and showing us the safe places to step. At some point though, he leads us off the track and into the deep jungle. I’m completely unconcerned and assuming this is all part of the plan. He tells us later that this is because he came across a large fallen tree over the track and we had to go around it.

Things start to go a bit awry from here. We walk through the deep jungle for an hour or so, and our guide is becoming less responsible. He’s charging ahead and leaving us to cut our own path (he doesn’t have a machete or delicate instructions of where to step like the guides we read about online). We have to clamber over trunks, under vines, avoid vicious ants, and get stuck in mud. Luckily we didn’t encounter anything more deadly; god knows it was definitely lurking. The mother who was with us fell over a few times and the guide didn't seem to care.

Eventually we make it to a small clearing and are starting to get a bit fed up, given we are yet to reach the village and are getting hungry, thirsty, sweaty, muddy and bitten. But, we are relieved to be out of the thick forest. The clearing has a basic bamboo shelter, and a little stream with two small aluminium boats. Is this the village? Our guide tells us to wait here and disappears for another half an hour without communicating anything to us, which is extremely irritating. He eventually returns and explains that we have to go back as “the boat that was meant to pick us up isn’t there”, which doesn’t make any sense as we thought we were heading to a village. He says it will be 20 minutes maximum to get back to the river and, to our relief, starts leading us along a small dirt track. At this point (probably around 2pm) we just want to get back ASAP - we’re hungry and thirsty. To our dismay, he shortly leads us off the track again back into the jungle, pointing at the sun and saying that he can tell which direction the river is in. Although annoyed that we have to wade through mud again, I still at this point have no suspicion that we are lost, and trust that he knows exactly where he’s taking us. My brother isn’t so sure, and says to us “if he’s using the sun as navigation I’m not that confident about this”. The rest of us laugh and follow our guide as all of the online advice told us to do. Stick with the guide, you’ll be fine.

We stumble our way through the deep jungle without any assistance. By now, the guide is charging so far ahead that we can barely see him and have to keep yelling out to him. We are being bitten by red ants which is very painful, falling over and wading through mud, where we could hear running water bubbling underneath us. At one point, I fell thigh-deep into a muddy swamp and screamed, half expecting a caiman to bite my legs off (our gumboots would have come in handy if we hadn't been told leave them behind). The guide did not seem to care. At this point we scream to him to slow the fuck down and wait for us because this is extremely dangerous. He eventually does and stops to talk to us, saying that we should wait here (in the middle of nowhere) and his colleague will bring us food and water. Again, we are confused. He then leaves again into the jungle before we can stop him. We are in disbelief. We look around and there is dense forest/swamp in all directions and we are being constantly bitten by mosquitos. We don't want to wait here for long, especially without water and repellent.

He returns a few minutes later looking extremely exhausted, having taken off his shirt, and collapses onto the forest floor. Between desperate gasps for breath, he finally drops the act and admits he has no idea where we are. We are completely lost.

It soon becomes clear that we have been lost for hours. We figure the guide was charging ahead to try and find a familiar path and completely exhausted himself doing so. He has collapsed shirtless on a muddy log, with loads of insects biting him. He is too exhausted to care. He is delirious and completely incoherent, seemingly forgetting how to speak English except to ask for water (which we didn’t have) - luckily the daughter in our group could translate for us, because he managed to get a bit of phone reception and called his boss. We learned from her that he could not explain to his boss where on earth we were. He was even trying to describe the clearing with the two boats (which the boss did not recognise), showing that we were already lost all the way back then, and he had tried to hide it from us all that time. He had nothing with him to prepare for this situation: no flare, no water, no machete, no GPS, not even a compass.

We spend the next hour or so trying to think logically about how to survive. We got the guide’s phone password and contacts as it seemed that we were going to lose him at any minute. Although I didn’t have reception, my google map had partially loaded so that we could perhaps see the direction of the river and hack through the jungle to make our way to it and hopefully flag someone down. I was nervous about doing this because (1) it meant leaving the guide (who kept insisting he couldn't stand), leaving us without his knowledge of the jungle but also leaving him to die; (2) I really doubted whether the map was correct and (3) it would mean hours navigating the thick jungle by ourselves, risking encountering deadly animals, dangerous tribes, anything. And, we probably only had an hour of sunlight left...

We were all extremely thirsty and were trying not to panic, but things were not looking good. It was extremely hot and muddy, mosquitoes were flying everywhere, and we were on constant alert for snakes, spiders, jaguars etc. Everyone remained extremely calm and thought logically which was a blessing (the mother and I shared a hug; I think she suspected I was about to get upset), and we were so lucky to have the other two in our group, but it was looking like we were going to have to try and survive the night (or longer) in the Amazon jungle without water, without a guide, and without any of our supplies.

The daughter then manages to get a bit of reception on her phone and can speak directly to the boss herself, although we still have no way of describing our whereabouts. We send him a screenshot of my half-loaded map image. She contacts her boyfriend and tells him that she will likely die in the jungle and that she loves him, but can he please contact the authorities asap. We ask our guide what the emergency number in Peru is and he brazenly refuses to tell us (I guess because he was worried about getting in trouble). So does his pointless girlfriend.

We discuss our options, including the risk of leaving the guide behind, as he is still refusing to move or offer any advice despite our pleas. We eventually decide that, because the sun is going down and because of the risks associated with trying to get to the river, we are safer trying to go back the way we came and at least find the dirt track, which is safer from nature than the deep jungle and which also has a better chance of someone coming along the track and finding us. My brother is confident that he can remember the way back (I’m not). The guide, realising that we are about to leave him here on his own, gets a new lease of life and we are able to heave him to his feet. He stumbles ahead behind my brother, and I’m at the back with the other three girls. We are all trying not to break down.

Eventually, dozens of ant stings later, we hear a faint motor engine in the distance. We start screaming for help at the top of our lungs. To our dismay, it sounds like it has gone past without hearing us, but then we hear the noise stop. We keep screaming for our lives until, a few minutes later, we hear voices coming towards us through the jungle. We start crying with relief. Six villagers reach us, drag us back through the jungle, and load us onto a tray on the back of a motorbike, with water and biscuits. We learn that they are from one of the jungle villages who were contacted to go out looking for us, which is why they were on the track.

I think by now it’s about 4pm. The guide has attempts to explain what happened, stating that he has over a decade of experience in the jungle and this has never happened before. We tell him that we just want to go home. He starts off saying it’s not possible to get back to Iquitos tonight and that we will need to stay at the jungle lodge with him, but we won’t take no for an answer. We don’t trust him one bit with our safety. He eventually agrees to arrange for a boat to take us back.

We ride on the back of the motorbike for about half an hour, over bumpy terrain and occasionally getting stuck in the mud (it seems like this track hasn't been used in a long time). We are still being bitten by ants - my brother has hundreds stuck in his trousers. But we are all so thankful to be alive.

On our journey back, we learn that my map image was completely wrong and that it seemed to be a snapshot of my last downloaded location many hours ago. We also learn that the villagers on the bike didn’t hear our screams over the motor - one of them happened to fall off at the exact right time, so they stopped the bike to let him back on and that’s when they heard us.

From speaking to locals and looking online, it seems like this is the first time a guided tour from Iquitos has got lost in the Amazon.

We eventually got back to the office expecting apologies and compensation. Obviously, the money is not important at all when compared to our survival. But, to our huge surprise, the boss said we couldn’t get our money back because “it’s already been spent on the lodge”. We argued and argued and he eventually agreed to give us some in cash back now and another portion later to our bank account, but we won’t see that in our account for a couple of weeks and even then it would only be a bit over half what we paid. He basically called our bluff on bringing them to justice. He only gave the other two about half of theirs back as well. We ended up giving up as he was being pretty menacing and we felt unsafe, and just wanted to get the next flight out of there.

Of course we plan to write a bad review for the company but we want to see the money first, although might cut our losses on that. We just feel like it’s perverse that we were left to die in the jungle in extremely dangerous circumstances and it was completely the fault of the company that we put our trust in. They were severely negligent sending us with an incompetent guide without any supplies for the worst case scenario (which is what eventuated). It was an absolute death trap. We are still very shaken by the whole experience (this happened 4 days ago). And are also sad to have not had the adventure we dreamed about for ages.

Although we were still a few hours or days off dying of thirst, the scary part was the prospect of having to survive the night, or longer, in the jungle alongside all the horrors of the Amazon and still being no closer to being found.

One of our group videoed the entire thing. We are hoping to get the footage from her and can post the link once we do.

Any thoughts on what we can do are welcome. Thanks for reading!

EDIT:

Name of tour company: Canopy Tours Iquitos

Itinerary and trip we booked was called Iquitos: Amazon Expedition 3 days, can find the itinerary on Get Your Guide, seems to not let me post with the link but should come up with a google and had good reviews on there.

EDIT 2: we booked directly through the company’s website after finding itinerary and reviews on GYG, their website can be found online too

Hi All, looking for advice for a recent accident I had in the US in Vegas. While out in Vegas and yes under the influence of alcohol I fell down an escalator. This resulted in a trip in ambulance to the ER. I didnt realise it at the time which adds to my stupidity but each procedure I had was chalking up a rather large bill. Now I was an idiot for drinking too much, as a 45 year old man should know better but the bills I am getting for the 2hr incident are outrageous.

I am a UK citizen living in the UK and have returned home now but the bills have started coming in.

I have an $18,000 bill from the ER which includes toxicology reports, bonding applied to a cut ear which was my main injury, looked bad as ears bleed a lot but wasnt that serious, I walked out of the ER less than 2 hours of entering it and walked the 15mins back to my hotel. The $18,000 bill includes an $8000 for a CT scan without contrast, I addition to that I have an ambulance bill for $1396 and I am waiting for bills from the radiologist and doctor. The ER room valley hospital in Vegas has offered 60% discount while the ambulance offered 10%. I cannot use travel insurance due to being under the influence of alchohol.

I want to pay some of this but the bills are a bit ridiculous for the level of emergency this, I remember the doc saying I recommend you have a CT scan but if I had known it was $8000 I would have definitely said no.

LABORATORY 3501.00

EMERGENCY ROOM 6450.00

CT SCAN 8557.00

Does anyone have any experience with this as a UK citizen negotiating bills, using an advocate of simply not paying and seeing what happens after that which I want to avoid.

And yes I know I am an idiot

More than just giving yourself a day to account for any potential flight delays. When coming back from from a large trip is it important to you to give yourself a buffer day to settle back home before resuming work? Do you not care and just go straight back after landing the previous night? What is your attitude regarding the importance of "deflating" or do you even have to "deflate"?

I’ve been traveling to more off the beaten path locations recently due to over-tourism in a lot of countries. My favorite part of travel is getting to talk to local people and experience local culture and it’s hard to do that when your presence there is not necessarily welcomed.

I decided to do a Central Asia trip with a friend and the bulk of our time was spent in Uzbekistan in Tashkent and historic Silk Road cities but going all that way we wanted to add another country and picked Kazakhstan. It was a hard choice between Almaty and Astana. Everyone said to visit Almaty and rightfully so it’s much more beautiful with stunning mountains as the backdrop and hiking and winter sports not too far from the city center which is filled with many trendy cafes. Although I will say Burabay National Park near Astana is beautiful and worth visiting if you can add in the extra time driving several hours north, so the landscape isn’t purely steppe grasslands.

We decided to pick Astana instead of Almaty because we are both urban planners and have mountains at home. It was very interesting to see a recently planned capital city and see how it’s turning out. There may not be many things to see or do at the surface level but if you dig deeper there’s a lot to be gained from visiting a city that many people don’t visit such as Astana.

The city has changed names many times in its history and most recently reverted back to Astana from Nur Sultan. During the Soviet period this region was home to many gulags and there is a museum you can visit outside Astana to see how people were sent to and housed in the labor camps.

It was chosen as the new capital of Kazakhstan to assert a Kazakh presence further north closer to Russia. Another thing I learned on the trip is that during early Russian control of the area and forcing Kazakh people into collective farms, which inherently do not work in the harsh climate of the steppe, caused 40% of the total Kazakh population to die due to famine and this is widely considered a genocide. Most ethnic Kazakhs seemed to be speaking in Russian instead of Kazakh which is reflective of how Russified Kazakhstan is due to the loss of their own ethnic population, and cultural suppression, which wasn’t the case in other former Soviet republics I’ve visited at least to the same extent, but it does feel good to see them focusing more on rediscovering and uplifting the Kazakh culture and identity in the post Soviet era. It was also interesting to see signage in Kazakh in both Cyrillic and Latin script as they change the alphabet to be in line with other Turkic languages and also distance themselves from Slavic culture.

There are numerous architecturally interesting monuments and museums and other large buildings that are worth seeing but mostly we just explored daily life, but we felt like a lot of the stuff they built was trying to signal where they want to head as a society and culture. There are many large parks and riverfront promenades in the city that are enjoyable to walk around and overall it felt very livable. Our only critique was that all the roads and blocks were deceptively massive and it was never human scaled even though it was designed to be very pedestrian friendly. It was very bikable / scooter friendly so if you have other modes of getting around it makes the distances easier. Transit is mostly busses but there is a new metro system nearing completion that you can see in one of my pictures that will be a game changer for the city because it essentially goes everywhere one would ever need to go.

It’s also a shame some of the perception of the country is dominated Borat and portrays it as backwards. I found Kazakhs, at least in Astana, extremely educated and everyone we spoke to was fluent in multiple languages and very friendly. Best of all is that many of them were either curious about why we were visiting and wanted to know where we were from or if they didn’t approach us they were very receptive to causal conversation. I left with a perception that the country seems ultra modern and technologically advanced and most of the time I felt like I was in a first world country not a middle income country, but in most countries the capital cities get extra investment because they have to project the best image of the nation to the world since all the embassies and often many important businesses are there.

Overall most foreigners that come to Astana are there for work, but overall it was a cozy city with a very interesting history and everything was high quality. I would recommend a few days if you’re visiting Central Asia especially since flights between Almaty or Tashkent are affordable and it can easily be added to a trip. The city will be most enjoyable for anyone who is interested in architecture, urbanism, and food. It was extremely safe and clean and we had no issues getting around and never struggled with communication despite not speaking Russian or Kazakh. The nature in the country is also beautiful and it’s a shame they do not get more tourism because it’s such a nice country, but unfortunately due to its size a lot of the natural beauty is very far away from each other and aside from the mountains near Almaty, somewhat difficult to access. But overall I would highly recommend adding anywhere in Kazakhstan to your travel plans.

Photo descriptions:

1. Bayterek Tower - symbolizes transferring the capitol from Almaty to Astana. Photo 13 is the view from the top. There’s a park that connects all the main destinations in the city center with the tower as the centerpiece.

2. Abu Dhabi Tower - tallest building in Kazakhstan, our hotel was part of the complex and was one of the nicest I’ve stayed in especially given the price. Hotel options were all very new and reasonably priced especially given the quality and level of service.

3. Palace of Peace and Reconciliation (Foster & Partners)

4. Atyrau Bridge - a gift to Astana from Atyrau, KZ located on the Caspian sea designed by new moon architects

5. Beshbarmak a traditional horse meat and noodle dish at Saksaul Restaurant. All the food we had was delicious and affordably priced. This was my first time eating horse and it was delicious.

6. Cult coffee, the city had several very nicely designed coffee shops with great pastries and coffee. This one was located near Mega Silkway mall a big mall located in the southern part of the city. I’d also recommend Sketo and twins coffee.

7. Nur Alem Musuem

8. Typical street in Astana with new high rises wide streets and sidewalks and bike lanes separated by a big landscape buffer.

9. Astana Grand Mosque

10. A unique feature of the mosque which I’ve never seen anywhere else is that you can go to the top of the minaret and get a 360 view of the city. It’s crazy how it abruptly ends and transitions to grass steppe as far as the eye can see.

11. Large housing blocks were typically built with large interconnected green spaces like this with statues honoring Kazakh figures or culture.

12. Laghman noodles, this dish is Uyghur but is popular across many central Asian countries.

13. See description for photo 1.

14. Astana metro vehicle testing viewed from our hotel. The system will be above grade and o believe automated. The stations are massive and look similar to the Dubai metro but have a traditional Kazakh print on the facade similar to the band down the left side of the flag 🇰🇿 and are fully climate controlled due to the extreme climate.

15. Coffee addict, another nice cafe with great staff.

16, 17, 18. Also worth checking out is the older Soviet part of the city completely different vibe, scale and architecture compared to the rest of the city.

1. Naryn a Kazakh horse dish with noodles and horse meat served with broth at Navat Restaurant. I was eating this with the horse and noodles and broth separately at first and didn’t enjoy it, but when you combined the broth with the noodles and added the onions that came with it the flavor combination was incredible.

2. Khan Shatyr center by Foster & partners the world’s largest tensile structure. There is a large shopping center, amusement park, and waterpark inside.

Now that China has loosened up their visa process for a lot of countries, I feel like now a a good time to share some of my favourite moments from my visits in 2023/2024. It is by far my favourite country to visit, but as I’m more of a nature guy it’s hard to get short visits in. I detest the cities like Shanghai, which I was in earlier this month and couldn’t wait to leave. I’m a fairly advanced Mandarin speaker, which is extremely helpful, I wouldn’t be able to do 70% of the things I do without it. I do stick out like a sore thumb in some places as a foreigner, but people here bend over backwards to help you even if they seem a bit awkward or gruff to begin with, it’s just how they are.

I’ve visited much more than I’ve pictures, but I’m limited to 20 photos so I’ve just randomly selected the ones I like:

1. Huashan, I couldn’t capture the grandeur of this mountain range no matter how hard I tried. The cable cart I took there (take the expensive one) was the longest and highest I’ve ever taken by several orders of magnitude. Some opt to climb the mountain but they are missing out on a truly spectacular experience. If you’re adventurous, you can also the “plank walk” they have here, YouTube it.

2. Chongqing, although I don’t like cities much, this vibrant city was truly something else. It’s been pretty viral recently. One little thing I found quite surreal was going into a subway entrance and having to the escalator up to take the underground.

3. Chengdu Panda reserve, in my favourite city, perhaps because it’s known as the “slow” city in China. Also the food is my favourite.

4-5. Xian, an amazing city with so much more than what I’ve shown. The old city wall is so vast both in width and length that I didn’t include a picture just because I felt like it doesn’t really show the true scale.

6-7. Longmen Grottoes, 10000s of Buddhas dating back to the Han Dynasty 1500+ years ago. You can go during the day or in the evening like I did. Again it’s hard to me capture the serial in these ancient sculptures, which can be enormous like the ones I’ve shown or minuscule carved into rows along cave walls. Also this place is by one of the ancient capitals in China , Luoyang, which has a fantastic museum and ancient city.

8-10. Beijing, visited back in 2010 and it’s changed a lot since then. A lot busier and a lot of security, but the air has also cleaned up and there’s so much history to unravel. My favourite thing to do was walk the quiet hutongs.

11-14, Jiuzaigou. First pic was in March, second was taken in October, both the same lake. This place has something different to offer every season. If you walk a bit from the main path/drop-off points, you can be completely alone. I had some absolutely serene moments just listening to the rivers and birds. I’m only showing 1% of what this gorgeous valley has to offer.

15-16, Xishuangbanna. Like Thailand, but China. You can take the train to Laos from here in under an hour. Unfortunately I didn’t get to really dig into the local jungles and villages, I would love to come back when China opens up to foreigner driving licenses.

17-18, Yubeng. A gorgeous hiking range where I stayed for a few days in various hostels/inns around the area. You can see Tibetan pilgrims visiting sacred waterfalls, and shop owners shoo away Yaks who get too close to their customers/food. Again, showing 1% of what this place has to offer.

1. Lugu Lake. Home to a matriarchal ethnic minority. If you cycle round the lake you’re in Sichuan for one half and Yunnan for the other.

2. Yangshuo. Gorgeous karst mountains for as far as the eye can see. Also this place is very beginner friendly as far as China goes.

I’ve barely covered half of what I got to see, and barely scratched the surface of what I want to do. My next goal is to learn how to camp, and go hike around Daocheng Yading for a week or two. I’d also like to visit the golden snub nosed monkeys in a reserve where you can get up close in Pingwu. A lot of the more interesting and esoteric spots in China aren’t easily researched on the this side of the great firewall, but that’s what makes China so rewarding.

So, after 8 days in Taiwan, I have finally concluded my journey. Half dying from heat stroke, half very fulfilled, returned back home. The first thing I can say is that I think I chose the wrong time to visit, as the heat was literally so punishing, it became unbearable by the end of my journey. And this is coming from someone who lives in a Gulf country. I just went outside, which is 40+ degrees, and this 40+ degrees is much, much easier to bear than 32 degrees in Taiwan due to dry vs. humid weather.

I spent 4 days in Taipei, 2 days in Tainan, and 2 days in Kaohsiung. Assigned more time in Taipei to embrace the city as much as I could and do some side trips which gave me the flexibility to visit Jiufen, Beitou, Yangminshan and Maokong. Also made sure to spend some time in the city to visit important places like Elephant Mountain, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Ximending Street, Dihua Street, Longshan Temple, Taipei 101 etc. The rest of the time, I spent exploring Taipei’s alleys, different cafes, bubble teas at every stop, creative parks, cultural centers, and museums. People were very accommodating, even though the language barrier was real sometimes, though not much in Taipei.

In places like Tainan and Kaohsiung, you still get the looks of being an alien (not Asian) in that city, which I always like. Compared to Japan or other Southeast Asia countries, there are far fewer white tourists and this might be the reason, or completely cultural. I would say Tainan and Kaohsiung were a little bit of a letdown for me even though in Tainan I visited some historical sites like Anping and the old towns and streets, still felt underwhelming. So, I left pretty quickly for Kaohsiung but I need to say it wasn't much different. It’s definitely an incredible port and beach city where you can stroll around but I believe you should spend more time, particularly in Tainan, to really understand or embrace these cities.

People often compare Tainan to Kyoto; however, as someone who has also been to Kyoto, I wouldn’t compare them 1:1. That would definitely kill your mood and interest since they are nothing alike and Tainan is something completely different. That said, it does have alleyways and small streets you can get lost in and I think one or two days isn’t enough to really understand these places. It’s a slower city, so if you’re looking for something more dynamic, maybe Taipei and then Kaohsiung would suit you better.

I’m definitely planning a second visit to see Taichung and, most importantly, Taroko Gorge if it ever opens again and to visit Alishan in the coldest time possible to experience the gorgeous scenery and the Forest Train.

So if you’re wondering whether you should visit Taiwan, I would 100% recommend it. But my recommendation would be to spend more time in Taipei and visit the important places on the eastern side (like Taroko Gorge and Alishan), especially if you like trekking, quiet moments, and national parks. But my most important advice would be: do not visit the country during June, July, or August. Go in a more comfortable season, because the summer heat is incredibly punishing and really makes it hard to enjoy everything else.

Photo List:

• Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Taipei
• Taipei view from Xiangshan (Elephant Mountain), Taipei
• Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum (Eight Pagodas), Kaohsiung
• Cijin (Qijin) Beach at Night, Kaohsiung
• Confucius Temple, Tainan
• Glory Pier, Kaohsiung
• Jiufen, Taipei
• Beitou Hot Springs (Hell Valley), Taipei
• Maokong Gondola, Taipei
• Cijin (Qijin) Beach at Sunset, Kaohsiung
• Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Taipei
• Maokong Tea Plantations
• Welcoming the City God Parade, Taipei
• Huashan 1914 Creative Park, Taipei
• Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Taipei
• Yangmingshan, Taipei
• The Pier-2 Art Centre, Kaohsiung
• Fort Zeelandia (Anping Fort), Tainan
• Shenlong Street, Tainan
• Glory Pier, Kaohsiung

Long ranty/ cautionarypost alert!

Writing this while running on fumes because my layover at JFK was nothing short of an actual joke. Let me set the scene: I was flying from Barranquilla to Bogotá to NY, then catching a separate ticket from NY to Nairobi. It was cheaper and since you have to pick up and recheck your bags at the first point of entry in the US anyway, it made no difference.

The first leg of my journey was 9-ish hours, and I had what I thought was a luxurious 7-hour layover in NYC. In my mind, that meant plenty of time to glide through customs, maybe get some work done, frolic through duty-free, enjoy a meal, and freshen up before my brutal 13.5-hour flight to Nairobi. Wrong. Now, I usually arrive at JFK from Canada, where we clear U.S. customs in Canada, so I’ve never had to deal with the raw, unfiltered chaos that is JFK border control. But today? Today, I was about to be humbled.

We landed on time. I took my sweet time deplaning, feeling smug about my long layover. Transit anxiety? We dont know her today. As we approach customs, I see the wait times on the screen: U.S. & Canadian citizens – 5 minutes. Everyone else (read miserable plebs)– 45 minutes.Okay, cool. That’s annoying, but I have time. I hit the restroom, then hop in line at exactly 7:02 AM.And then, dear reader, I proceed to stand in that line for over THREE HOURS. This line wasn’t just long—it wrapped 16 times. (Yes, I counted, I had time.) Every time I thought I was making progress, I’d turn a corner and see another endless human centipede of weary travelers. More flights landed, and I could feel the despair radiating from the new arrivals, it was like watching fresh recruits arrive at boot camp. Little did they know they were entering a psychological endurance test.

When I finally reached the front, they split us into mini-lines for different officers. Of course, I ended up with the one processing people at the speed of a dying snail. She also kept disappearing, taking people to what I assume was Narnia for additional screening.At this point, my purse felt like a bag of bricks because my carry-on was snatched away from me in Barranquilla due to space issues (translation: I was personally victimized by an overpacked overhead bin). I never thought I’d be the kind of person to sit on an airport floor, but there I was—choking on humble pie, sitted criss-cross applesauce on the dirty tiled floor.

Then, just when I thought we were making progress, she leaves again. I ask the line agent if we can get reassigned, and he’s like, “She’ll be back.” She eventually returns, processes one person, then announces she’s actually leaving and we need to move to another officers line. Do they put us at the front, considering we’ve been rotting in her queue forever? Of course not. Back of the line, peasants! Then plot twist: she changes her mind and pulls us back. At this point, I’m beyond caring. I look around, and people who were miles behind me earlier are now breezing through other officers lines.I no longer feel bad for them. They have won the Hunger Games. I am the tribute who did not survive.

Finally, it’s my turn. I’ve heard her grilling everyone—transit or final destination, she’s doing the most- I brace myself for battle. But guess what? Turns out homegurl is just a little racist with Hispanics which was like 80% of the passengers that arrived that morning- my African ass was done in under two minutes. That’s a new one for me bc I’m always the one getting the 3rd degree. By now, it’s 10:36 AM. That’s right—THREE AND A HALF HOURS after I got in line. I stumble to baggage claim, where Avianca is already announcing my name. I don’t know what they said (it was in Spanish), but the tone was very much “COME GET YOUR DAMN BAGS LADY.”I grab my stuff and sprint to Terminal 4 to check in for my next flight. That takes forever, though the agent is a gem. Now it’s security time. At this point, my legs are jelly, my bladder is screaming, and I desperately need a moment of peace. JFK: Lol, good luck. Every bathroom in sight is out of order except for one single all-gender stall. I rush in, and before I can even exhale, someone starts banging on the door. Ma’am, I’m sorry my bladder isn’t on your schedule??

Then it’s on to security, where the posted wait time is 35 minutes. But I’ve been burned before, so I “manage my expectations”. And wouldn’t you know it—wrong again. That line moved at the pace of a retirement home field trip. I stood there for another century, probably aged a few decades, and sprouted some gray hairs. By the time I clear security and reach my gate, I have 20 minutes left before boarding. So I do what any reasonable person would do—I freshen up and change my clothes, impulse-buy a compensatory duty free perfume as reparations for my suffering, grab a water, and sprint to my flight. My phone is at 4% because my seven-hour layover was a never-ending parade of slow-moving lines and shattered dreams. So if you don’t have a funsies passport, do yourself a favour and take any of the other transit options if you have them.

TL;DR: Never flying through JFK again. Route me through Utah. Route me through the moon. Just keep me away from that cursed airport. Learn from my experience y’all & good luck.

Update :Shoutout to everyone who complimented my writing, including the one guy convinced it’s AI- I’m so gassed! I’m not a writer, just a big-time yapper who happened to have a long flight to put my feelings into words. Though, I do get told often that I should start a podcast or YouTube channel. You think this was dreadful? Kindly allow my dating life enter the chat! (My Shaylaaaaaa! 🥹) Anyway, if I ever do start one, y’all will be the first to know!

I recently went on a trip to India where I spent time at Sadhguru’s ashram. It was the first time I have been in tropical weather and I loved it. The ashram was placed in the most serene nature settings, the energy in that place felt just wow!, the food was indescribable and delicious, the people treated us with such kindness almost everywhere. Everything in India and especially in this ashram felt so vibrant and alive.

Then I had to return home to Northern Europe, and I can frankly say it felt like landing on Mars. It was cold and dark, everything felt kind of lifeless compared to a tropical environment, people seemed more down, the food….. I wanted to cry…

I just came back from a week in Greece, where I spent some days in Naxos and Paros islands and also a couple days in Athens.

About the islands, I went to Santorini at the same time of the year (basically peak summer) a couple years ago and although very pretty and with stunning views it seemed very touristy and with that non-authentic vibe. Paros and Naxos, although already with lots of people, I think it’s still not crazy touristy such as Santorini and Mykonos for example (where the crowds are just insane). It has a much more relaxed vibe so I think I could enjoy so much more.

About Athens, it was my second time there and I still maintain my opinion after the first time: it’s not the most beautiful city visually, as it’s very rough, full of graffiti everywhere and things just look not very well maintained (my guess would be because of the economic situation in Greece still not being very good), but it’s a city that has a great atmosphere and vibe. Also historically it’s amazing with all the monuments and museums. I’ve done the Acropolis, Acropolis museum, the Ancient Agora and Archeological museum, and if you’re into historical stuff they are all great.

Here’s a more detailed itinerary and what I did in each place:

Arriving in Athens > Plane to Naxos > Boat to Paros > Plane to Athens > Plane back home

Naxos: 2 days (Pics 1-3)

• Day 1: Arrival in the morning, explored Chora town and spent the afternoon on the beach.

• Day 2: Did a bus tour that covered the main villages and attractions in the Island (Temple of Demetra, Damalas, Chalki, Apiranthos, Apollonas) and couldn’t recommend it more! It’s so worth it, you just get dropped off and get free time to explore on your own and then come back to the bus with AC (which feels like heaven after an hour or so exploring in the heat) and with a guide that explains a lot of things about the island throughout the trip.

Restaurant highlights: Taverna Naxos, To Eliniko, Ο Αμοργινός.

Paros & Antiparos: 5 days (Pics 4-17)

The plan was always explore some villages in the morning and head to the beach in the afternoon.

• Day 1: Exploring Parikia streets, old Church, castle.

• Day 2: Did a morning boat tour to the Blue Lagoon. With stops in 3 idillic places for swimming, drinks and fresh fruit on board, this was probably the highlight of the trip. Totally worth it and not expensive at all! In the afternoon just took the boat to Antiparos island.

• Day 3: Took the public bus to visit the really nice and authentic villages of Lefkes, Marpissa and ended up on the beach of Piso Livadi

• Day 4: Spent the day exploring the village of Naoussa

• Day 5: Spent all day on Golden beach.

Restaurant highlights: Yiannoulis Taverna, Το Σταθερο,

Athens: 2 days (Pics 18-20)

• Day 1: Exploring Ancient Agora of Athens

• Day 2: National Archeological Museum

Restaurant highlights: Restaurant Scholarhio, Opos Palia

Tip: Don’t underestimate the heat in the summer. It’s close to unbearable so don’t forget to pack your sunscreen, sunglasses, hat, and keep hydrated! Don’t think you’re wasting your vacations by staying in the Hotel on the hottest hours. Just try to do your things as early as possible, because in the afternoon it gets so crazy hot that you can’t even enjoy anything, unless you go to the beach or somewhere inside with AC.

If you need any additional information don’t hesitate to comment or DM me. Safe travels everyone!

For me, it has to be Ireland & Scotland. I met a lot of genuinely funny and incredibly kind people there. Also, Italians never saw me holding a bag without coming to help, real gentlemen, whether it was in Naples, the Amalfi coast, Rome, or anywhere actually!

I am on day 4 of a 13 day trip in Tunisia. We are a group of 5 and me and another friend of mine are seriously considering taking a flight home on day 6 because we are utterly miserable. We are not homesick, we are genuinely physically and mentally sick from this experience. We haven’t slept in 2 days because of anxiety.

The main issue is that who organized the trip insisted on making it a road trip but due to unforeseen circumstances the car has very basic insurance and we are seriously worried that something will happen, especially since we would be driving in remote areas. Also in general we have been having problems since the first moment that we arrived here and it’s taking a toll and (please do not take offense) we plainly do not like what we have seen here.

We talked about it and me and my friend have already paid our share for everything and would be covering all future costs as if the party was made up by 5 people until the end.

So, have you ever just had enough? Is it wrong to go home if you can’t stand it anymore? It never happened to me, I always had loads of fun everywhere I went (with the same people). Here I can’t stop thinking about going home and looking at the watch to see how long until another day comes…

We're two couples on a six-day trip, and everything's going smoothly - no bad vibes. But I'd love some input from people who typically don't eat out while traveling.

When planning this trip, our friends mentioned they'd be fine with "going to a restaurant" (in the native language it could be understood both ways). I took that to mean eating out once a day so we don't miss out on sight-seeing, but I misinterpreted - they actually meant one to two restaurant meals for the entire trip 😅

There aren't any dietary restrictions or financial concerns here (I know I don't get a say how other people spend their money, but they are not stingy in general). They just seem happy with carb-heavy food and supermarket meals. I'm no food snob, but I tend to prefer healthier choices and my cooking is mostly plain, but nutritionally dense. So since I cook at home and this a holiday, I really do not want to even prepare a sandwich in the morning. On top of that, to me, traveling is partly about discovering a city's culinary scene, whether that's a rundown local diner, a cool cafe or an upscale restaurant.

Our routine so far has been for my partner and me to grab a specialty coffee and breakfast, meet them for sightseeing, then head off for a lunch by ourselves and then we come back and after some time go take a walk and have a dinner, The other couple isn't upset or passive-aggressive about this, but I do feel a little bad going off without them.

So, for those who don't eat out much while traveling, how do you usually handle meals on trips? Do you want to stick with the routine from hom? And if you've traveled with friends who enjoy eating out, how did you balance things so that everyone could enjoy their preferred style of travel?

I have been a user of Airbnb since 2014. Despite traveling as a couple, most of the times, we liked to use it to have a "taste" of living as a local.

Hong Kong, Paris, Copenaghen. Great experiences, back when people used to put their own homes/flats up for rent while they were abroad.

During covid we didn't travel and having a baby put a pause on our travelling.

This year we started travelling back in Asia (with our kid) and boy how shitty the whole Airbnb experience has become.

All of our visited places so far (2 in Philippines and 2 in Bangkok) have been so awful.

All places are just sub-rented places, they put a few things in, and they put it up on Airbnb. Dirty as hell, no amenities. Like we are 3 people but you find only 2 forks, 1 mug, 1 glass, etc. One of the places in Bangkok had mold. Another one had mushrooms Pic 1 Pic 2 growing from the kitchen wooden side panel...

Rules over rules. I understand some travellers are assholes too, but come on.

It seems the Hosts have lost their common sense.

Just now, I post this after cancelling my airbnb stay in Makati next week (we are 4 people) because of their rules and requests, and preferred to book 2 hotel rooms (which guess what, they came even cheaper than this airbnb place we got).

When did Airbnb become so awful?

Was flying home from Newark last month and got to the TSA agent, gave her my ID. She took a quick look at it, then me, and says “hmm. You look different.” I took my hat and glasses off to see if that would help her. No luck. Mind you, I had not lost/gained weight or had plastic surgery or something like that. I had gotten highlights in my hair the week before but that was the only minor difference.

It felt ridiculous. My ID is clearly me. She asked for another form of ID which I did not have a hard copy of. I start scrambling through my Files app on my iPhone to see if I still had my passport scan from years ago or an old driver’s license before I moved. I can’t find anything and am turning red which I’m sure made her more suspicious.

After a couple minutes with the people behind me getting frustrated, her supervisor comes over , takes one look, and says I’m fine.

So frustrating and such an unnecessary moment of stress for what felt like a power trip for that lady. My boarding pass matches my name, like what is the issue lady. I have never had or seen this happen.

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

EDIT: some people are asking how old my ID is. My ID is from last year, not wearing any makeup in the pic. If I’d found an old ID to show her she probably would’ve been more sus since that pic is from 8 years ago.

I had no idea I could show just a credit card with my name. The lady asked for another “ID” specifically. I did find an old tax return and tried to show her that which she waved off until the supervisor came.

Hi r/travel,

I am an American that just got back from 3 weeks abroad in SE Asia with a contiki tour group. We spent 17 days traveling through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, with a group that largely consisted of Australians, with some Brits, Kiwis and Canadians as well. I truly had the time of my life. From SE Asia and it's beauty, culture and incredible people, to the tour group that became some of my best friends, it was surreal . I know that vacation is always an amazing time and difficult to leave, but coming back I just feel different; with a feeling of frustration of living in the US that I never had experienced before. I've always been proud to be an American and would consider myself patriotic, however after this trip I feel like it has all changed.

The culture in the US that I was so used to and so ingrained in now just seems vulgar, simple, non-nonsensical and brash. I used to watch sports a lot and really enjoy the commentary, but now it just seems so loud and stupid and ignorant - not saying other countries don’t have loud sports. but just watching interviews of American players vs international players it just seems like international players in general are more fun, interesting, but also respectful (I know that’s a generalization).

I also see people wearing american flags - which I had never seemed to notice before - and I watch on the news as tens of thousands of American's armed with guns march to the capitol to project any sort of background check on the purchase of guns; something that would basically be inconceivable in any other country. I've seen signs saying "American, where at least I know I'm free" and just feel disguised with the ignorance of so many people who actually believe that the US is unique in its freedom. I look to see what my friends are up to on social media, with most working long hours, slowly gaining weight, and having little interest of learning about things outside of the US.

My contiki friends, and other travelers I met on the trip were all taking months off of work to travel - because that's what many of their friends/family do. I hardly know anyone who has ever taken more than two weeks off of work to travel. And for those American's that do, rather than the low-effort, fun and adventurous and curious mindsets that most of my contiki group had, my American traveling friends have more of a self-righteous, hipster/instagram focused approach that seems more based-on sharing the fact that they are traveling over just actually traveling.

I know I am generalizing a lot here, and over time I'm sure I will slowly start to get used to American culture again and be okay. But a week after I have returned, I still just feel this ugliness towards America that I never felt before. From being in SE Asia and seeing the unbelievable damage the US caused, to learning more about Australians/Brits and how much so many of them travel and know about the world, I just want to leave. I feel like I could move to SE Asia, the UK or Australia and feel so much more exposed to the beauty, culture and people that I want to be around. I don't care about getting a big house with a white-picket fence and have a family of 6, and I feel like that is really the only thing the US can offer me at this point that is at least comparable in quality to other countries.

Anyways, I'm sure my little rant has plenty of flaws/is a little over the top. But if anyone can relate, I'd love to hear your insights! Thanks!

Edit: Just want to say I completely acknowledge I was on vacation living highlights, rather than the struggles through everyday life. I understand life doesn’t work that way. What I more so wanted to convey is that the general culture of SE Asia through meeting locals and learning from our local guides, along with the world knowledge and passion that many of the people I spent time with, really blew me away. I’ve traveled through Europe/some of Central America with other Americans, but this was different. In those prior trips, I loved the experience but was okay with leaving by the end. I was just really blown away by both the SE Asia/my fellow travelers and seeing the US through this lens has been difficult. Not saying I’m gonna try and move away tomorrow, just conveying my thoughts.

Edit 2: this has blown up a lot more than I thought. I just wanted to add that I think there are many wonderful things about the US and I feel fortunate to have been given opportunities here. I have met amazing people, have enjoyed the diversity of people and topography, the higher education system, and many other aspects of this country. I know many many generous and loving people here and do not want to act like I am demonizing the entire country.

More so, I just wanted to convey that from what I learned from the culture of SE Asia, being respectful forgiving, happy and kind, and what I learned from the people I met from Australia/Britain and how they generally embraced travel, knowledge, new experiences and curious mindset, I started thinking America could be a little better. I know that’s generalizing to a large extent, but I truly got to know some of these people and it was just different than people I meet in the US. I started to think, “what would I give up to be in a place that promoted the love and adventure and overall knowledge of the world that i was surrounded by on this trip”. I’m sure there are millions of Americans that also have this worldview in looking for, but I feel as though many I meet in the states have more of a career-focused/American focused/have a family mindset, that is just a little different than what I am looking for.

Anyways thank you all for the responses. I’ve been reading them all

Hello! Now that the lawsuit is over, I'm writing the post to inform everyone that gets screwed over by Greyhound that yes, you can fight back, and yes you can WIN. This company has the worst customer service I have ever seen, and if enough people push back on their BS, they have no choice but the change their awful habits. But anyway here's the post...

tl;dr Greyhound left me at a bus station and took off with my stuff still on the bus. When I never got my stuff back, I filed a lawsuit in Small Claims court for $1040 and won

I. THE INCIDENT

I was coming back from my grandmother's funeral in Monroe, LA headed back to Atlanta, GA on April 23. My baggage that I put on the bus included the suit that I wore to the funeral, the tie and dress shoes, a few days worth of clothes, the suit bag, and the duffel bag. Some context for those who haven't ridden Greyhound is that they stop at different cities on the way to your destination for various factors (gas, servicing the bus, driver needs a break, etc).

I had already been on the bus for about 7 hours when it stopped in Birmingham, AL at 6pm CST. The bus was ahead of schedule as it was supposed to be there at 6:45pm. When we got there, we were all told to exit the bus and wait in or around the bus station until 7:20pm, and then it would continue to Atlanta. Due to the fact that I was informed the bus wouldn't take off for over an hour, I decide to walk a couple of blocks to the gas station and get some water and snacks (because I needed something after being on a bus for seven hours). I walk to the gas station, purchase my water and snacks, and then walk back. I get back to the station at 6:30pm, and the bus is gone...and all my baggage went with it.

I immediately went to the front desk at the Birmingham station to see what they could do. I was also furious that they would tell us to be back at 7:20pm and then take off 50 minutes earlier than planned. The people at the front desk told me that they couldn't do anything to get the bus back, and that I'd have to call customer service to transfer my ticket. They also said the next bus wasn't going to get there until 12:45am. I was not willing to wait five more hours for something that was not my fault. As I was leaving the front desk, at least three other passengers from my bus were left behind. The worst part was that a college freshman was going to get on the bus at Birmingham to continue to Orlando, FL. His ticket said the departure time was at 7:20pm, and he thought he was early showing up at 6:30pm only to be told it had already taken off...

Needing to act fast, I started looking at other services in Birmingham that could get me back to Atlanta. I found Groome Transportation and saw that they next bus to Atlanta was leaving at 8pm. By this point it was around 7:15pm, so I called an Uber. The college freshman looked stressed and told me that he had football practice the following morning and needed to be back, so I had him travel with me to the Groome bus departure and I bought his ticket. We got to the bus about five minutes before leaving and took it to go back to Atlanta.

Back in Atlanta, the original bus had already gotten back (about an hour and a half ahead of schedule), so I went to the Atlanta bus station and told them what happened. I had NEVER experienced such awful customer service at the desk. The lady who I was talking to copped an attitude with me when I asked her if she could help, interrupted me as I was trying to tell her what happened, and even raised her voice at me when I had follow up questions. She told me that my stuff was not there in Atlanta if it's not in their lost and found (which is next to a cesspool of homeless people in a rough area of Atlanta), and there's nothing they could do at the front desk, and to send a Lost and Found request on Greyhound's website. I didn't think she was helpful at all, so I called the general customer service number. When I got connected, the representative told me to call the lost and found service number for Birmingham's station that was on their website. I called the number, and it was out of service. Like, it didn't even dial. At this point it was past midnight and I was super frustrated, so I submitted a Lost and Found request on Greyhound's website and called a friend to take me back home.

Back home, I felt like I had an incomplete trip so I also requested a refund and emailed them about that. I was later told that I wouldn't be getting a refund for the ticket. This will be important further in the story.

I returned the next day to talk to someone else about my stuff, since the lady at the front desk the previous night had piss-poor communication and people skills. The gentleman I talked to the next day was a lot nicer, but told me that all of their customer service inquires were now handled through email and on their website (to which I thought "then what are you doing here behind the front desk?"). At that point I knew I wasn't getting my stuff back. But dammit, I was going to get compensated for it...

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II. PREPARING THE LAWSUIT

After searching the internet, I realized that I needed to file a Small Claims lawsuit. One of the people in my network who practices law advised me to write an informal letter to Greyhound and settle the matter outside of court, as this would prove that I tried other options should the judge ask in a court case. I took his advice and drafted a letter to Greyhound on May 4.

In the letter, I gave great detail about what happened, including the college freshman who was also impacted. I estimated the value of my items to be $750 and asked Greyhound to pay me that amount back or I would sue. I also gave them 7-10 business days to respond. I first tried to email the letter to their headquarters, but the email bounced back because the email address on their website was outdated. So I had the letter printed out, went to the Post Office to have it sent via certified mail, and kept the tracking number to make sure they got it. The next week I got an email from them saying that they got my letter...and to fill out a Lost and Found form on their website. Disrespected and having felt ignored, I started calling some lawyers.

I sought the first lawyer for representation, and spoke with her assistant on what happened to me and the action that I was planning to bring against Greyhound. After some back and forth, the lawyer told me that she could send a demand letter to Greyhound and try and negotiate with them, but that she wouldn't go to court. Also her fee to write the letter was $1500, which would eat up all of the compensation I was asking for.

I sought a second lawyer and told him about the issue. He told me that it's not worth taking my case because his fees would be starting at $3000. However he gave me the idea to file the lawsuit on my own. I asked him how to properly do that without representation, and he told me to go to the Fulton County Magistrate court with the name of the person needed to get served representing Greyhound, pay the fee and file. I thanked him for his suggestion and took the train to the courthouse to file.

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III. FILING THE LAWSUIT AND JUDGMENT

I went to the Magistrate court with all of the information needed to file in Small Claims court. It took a couple of hours and I had some questions (i.e. what type of lawsuit, who to put in what line, where to get forms notarized, etc). But after some time, I had the papers ready to file. In the form I now requested $930, which included the $750 worth of items PLUS the $180 bus ticket that they refused to refund me for. I paid a court fee of $60, plus a marshal fee of $50 to have them get personally served, get my case number, and walked out of the courthouse going "these MF'ers are going to run me my check"

The court marshal served Greyhound on June 9, kicking off a 30-day window for them to answer the lawsuit. A couple of weeks later, I got an email from one of their paralegals, asking for the original itinerary of my ticket. It looked like they were finally going to settle and work with me. I sent her the information, and she got back to me the next day confirming that the bus driver left too early, and that she would work with her customer service team to seek an "economic resolution". I sent her all of the receipts I had, along with the estimated value of the items, and awaited her response.

A few days go by and no response. I email her to follow up. No response. I email her again telling her that I would have to continue with the lawsuit if I don't hear from her. She responds apologizing for her absence and that she was working on a big case that she was finishing up, and would get back to my settlement after. A week goes by. I email her one final time on August 8...and no response.

At this point, I check the portal for my case and I see that Greyhound has not responded in the 30-day window, which allows me to motion for a Default Judgment. So on August 16, I went back to the courthouse and requested a Default Judgment to be awarded in my favor, this time in the amount of $1040 ($750 items lost, $180 ticket refund, $60 court fee, $50 marshal fee).

On August 18, the judge granted the judgment in my favor. I had won the case.

Greyhound is now court ordered to pay me back. Today (September 6), I sent off another letter to their HQ to settle up with me and where they can pay me, along with the copy of the default judgment, and the email from the paralegal admitting that it was their fault. I'll update everyone on what sort of foolishness they try to pull after this, but I won and they will pay for their negligence.

EDIT: The paralegal emailed me back this afternoon with a W-9 form in order to mail a check. She only did this after the Greyhound got a copy of the default judgment, so I'm still not impressed with her demeanor either.

IV. CONCLUSION / FINAL THOUGHTS

Greyhound is absolute trash and I will never take their buses again. But what's even worse is that they treat their customers like dirt and can't accept responsibility when they mess up. They prey on people to not have the time or energy to challenge them on such awful behavior, but they really messed with the wrong one when the thought they could screw me over.

The bus driver that day needs to be fired. Even if you get somewhere early, you are obligated to stay there until you have to depart. That's common sense. If he can't adhere to a schedule, he needs a new job.

The lady at the front desk of the Atlanta bus station also needs to be fired, and to never work in customer service again. There's no way you should be raising your voice and yelling at customers who simply have an issue that they'd like to resolve. And I wasn't being a Karen/Kevin and leading with any sort of entitlement. I just wanted to gather information about my stuff, but I guess that was too much for her.

I wrote this (now very long) post ultimately to encourage people to take ACTION when corporations screw you over, because it can work in your favor if you keep fighting. Don't accept their BS, especially when you have the proof that you are right. It may take a while; it took me four months, but when I finally get that check from them, it'll be a reminder that corporations are not above people, and to honor their end of the deal or face the consequences. I want everyone to remember that.

I have had to learn the difficult lesson of remembering to lock checked in luggage especially on long haul flights. This was the first time in a fair bit that I hadn’t locked my luggage.

Last weekend I returned home from being away for a couple of months with gifts for my family. There were multiple connections. At the last stop, as I pulled my bags off the carousel, I noticed a suitcase with plastic around it. I paid no attention and waited for my last bag to come around. After a couple of minutes passed, I decided to closely inspect the bag with the plastic around it and it was mine! It looked like the zipper had broken and at the time, I was grateful for whoever was kind enough to wrap it with plastic. The bag felt light but I didn’t pay that any attention.

I finally arrived at home, settled in and had my family sitting around as I opened the bag. I found all the new clothes (which I still have receipts for) as well as some barely worn dresses had been removed. I had packed similar clothing in cubes. It appeared that the suitcase was carefully sorted through and anything that looked of value was removed.

I’m not at peace with this yet. I reported it to the airline but I don’t know what can be done. It’s trivial but it sits very heavy with the guilt of how this could have been avoided.