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The trips your remember -- when disaster struck!

 Its funny, because its so very true; a friend reminded me that the only trips we remember are those where something unexpected and unplanned -- or even when disaster struck.  Like all children, my first trips were with my parents, rather later than most, still. Here is a rundown of the funniest;


Mexico 1984:  In those days travel costs were so much higher in Canada than in the US that it was really worth it to drive down to NYC and catch a flight there...the night before our planned departure for NYC (by car) we (my sister, mother and I) saw the news about a major storm arriving that evening; my dad not so concerned, said there would be "no snow because of a high-pressure front".  As the words emerged from his mouth the snow started.  We rushed to finish our bags and leave Montreal...it was fun we ended up sleeping in Albany because the snow was so bad, but we were able to catch our flight in the morning.

The same trip:  New years eve in Mexico City my dad insists that we should go out "to a restaurant in town to celebrate New year (the front desk had told us that "most restaurants were closed for the evening".  We walked for 3 hours "looking for an open restaurant -- nothing!  Eventually returned to the hotel and had dinner there.

Portugal Easter 1986:  Dad forgot there were 31 days in March...so we were short a hotel for a night during the busy season; we found two rooms in homes -- in my parent's room some guy tried to come in through the window -- a local friend of the owner who was too drunk to get home and decided that sleeping in the guest bedroom of his friend's house was a good idea...hahaha.  The worse part, we had been staying in a hunting lodge in the Evora Forest that had vacancies...we could have stayed an extra night

Same trip:  My sister is driving the rent-a-car and gets the car filled up with "gas" for some reason she had stopped in front of the diesel pump and the attendant asked her if she wanted diesel, her not understanding Portuguese said, "fill it up!"  We wasted 3 hours while they cleaned the fuel system.

India 1989:  Both my sister and I were studying in Europe, and my parents decided to spend a month in Inda and we would join them for two weeks.  Flying on those days was interesting, but there the problem is because the plane was late in arriving we were late in leaving and the airport at which we were supposed to land was shut for the night, we flew into Agra a day early the night of the full moon (all hotels were full) we ended sleeping in a "one-star" hotel where the beds were wooden platforms -- after searching for many hours.  Funny enough the next morning breakfast in the garden was just divine and the garden was magnificent -- but nothing worked in the rooms themselves (starting with the shower and the toilets).

These are the events I remember clearly as it was yesterday.  In my life, I visited nearly 75 countries, but the trips that I remember are those were something unexpected occurred.

Bonus:  Years ago working with a team on a project in India (Delhi), two colleagues decided to go to the Taj Mahal in Agra, told them the night before "fly or take the train" the highway to Agra is the most dangerous in the world -- what did they do, they took the bus, which left at 4 am, arrived at noon (may in India...) and left again at 4 pm (where the site closes)  the arrived back at their hotel at 3 am.  When they told us this the next morning over breakfast we were all dumbfounded -- "we had told them not to take the highway... as one of my "Canadian" colleague said:  You can bring the horse to the water, but you cannot force it to drink"

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