What kind of problems will you face when travelling abroad?

Written by : Chris Baskerville, Love to travel, visited 20+ countries

18 Answers

Chris Baskerville, Love to travel, visited 20+ countries

Updated 25 Jan 2015

I absolutely love to travel abroad. I look at each travel occasion as a big adventure and I immediately look forward to assimilating into a new country's culture and way of life, as fast as possible. 

I find that most problems (I like to think more along the lines of  "challenges") when travelling abroad are (in no particular order):

• Forgetting your passport as you arrive at the airport. Doing this can ruin your day.
• Getting through the long lines at Customs. I find Customs the most 'unglamorous' part of travel. I find I am most anxious during this process and, for a brief moment of time, the fun adventure of travel is sucked out of you by the poor Customs officers that rinse and repeat all questions to see if that can catch you out as a terrorist, fraudster, smuggler or, whether you should be charged with war crimes going back to your time in Nazi Germany.
• Sitting next to a very unpleasant traveller on the plane. Especially one that doesn't understand common airplane courtesy. This also includes sitting behind a passenger that constantly has their seat reclined.
• Limited selection on the inflight entertainment system, especially on long haul flights. There are only so many episodes of "Sex and the City" you can watch before going crazy.
• Not having enough local currency on arrival and feeling like you are getting 'financially raped' when you exchange your national currently to the local currency.
• Cab drives that you sense are not taking you the most direct route to your hotel or next mode of transport (i.e., a cruse ship).
• The continual feeling that all locals are trying to rip you off, any way they can and, always feeling like you need a death grip on your wallet.
• Learning the basic lingo at the country you just arrived in. Having said this, I learn "hello", "please" and "thank you" as fast as I can.
• Always being alert to avoid using the local water supply and being conscience that the food you eat has been cooked well to avoid food poisoning.
• Not knowing where the dangerous areas in the country you are visiting. Heading to the wrong part of town, especially at night, can be daunting. Stay near the lights.
• Protecting your passport from being stolen, even in your hotel room. Note: I never leave the passport in the hotel safe. I hide it in the room in what I think are the least obvious places to look.
• Valuables being stolen from your room. Again, I take the same approach as I do my passport in this regard.
• Getting too drunk on a night out and not knowing where you are or how to get to 'home base'.
• Being drugged through the drinks you acquire at a pub or night club. Not that I have personally experienced this, but something that my female friends pay particular attention to avoid.
• Meeting the wrong people when out and about, particularly those that try to lead you astray.
• Being stuck on a tour bus with people who want everything to be like their home country. Especially those who: (1) won't learn the basic local pleasantries, (2) constantly ask for food made from their native country (when it is next to impossible), and (3) always whinge about why things don't happen the way they do back home.
• Running into abnoxious people from your home country, who think it is great to excasserbate the 'Bogan culture' they have back home.  Yes, sometimes I am ashamed to be an Astralian abroad.
• Running into corrupt police and other law enforcement officers. I had experienced this when traveling to some South East Asian countries. No problem that spare cash cannot get you out of.
• Constantly calculating the exchange rate in your head to determine whether you are being 'taken for a ride' when purchasing goods and services. This is particularly evident when a providore changes the purchase price between the local currency and US dollars in an attempt to confuse you to paying more than you should.
• Being scammed. There are a limitless number of scams out there. Yes, I was stupidly the victim of a 'valuable gem' scam. Seemed like a good idea when I was 22.
• The greatest problem (challenge) is having had an awesome experience abroad, returning home to 'normal life'.

Despite the exhaustive list outlined above,  I would travel abroad in a heart beat, even knowing that not all things go according to plan and that there is always an ever present danger of something going wrong. It is what makes travelling both such an adventure and a learning experience.