While traveling is mainly seen as an enriching and eye-opening experience, it can go both ways. The journey of your dreams can either turn out to be the best time of your life or it can leave a traumatic scar you will never forget.
As much as I love traveling, I believe that at one point or another, you can be faced with your biggest fear. And though this post is not meant to discourage you from traveling, I am really curious to know the story that made you stop to think before taking your next trip.
Bored Panda reached out to Tom Grond, also known as Travel Tom Tom, who is an avid adventure traveler from The Netherlands. We wanted to ask a professional full-time traveler to share his both best and worst adventures with us, so feel free to read the full interview with him below.
More info: traveltomtom.net | Instagram | TikTok
#1
I walked outside and realized I lived in Oklahoma. Went right back into the house. Terrifying.
#2
So… there were scary road trips for sure (flash floods, forest fires, etc) but this… for me personally was the scariest. It was Christmas day, we were headed back to Canada. We were in Georgia and there was a problem with our hotel room. It hadn’t been cleaned, there were chicken bones on a plate in the bed and pee on the bathroom floor… just gross. So they got us a room at a sister hotel about 2 hrs away. We went there and were completely exhausted, so after checking in, we went to get dinner.
By this point, it’s like 10 pm, and the only place open was a Waffle House (kind of like depressing Denny’s for those that don’t know the brand). We went in and, to put it lightly, everyone inside seemed like someone should do a wellness check on them (e.g. two teens were clearly strung out, and there was a filthy screaming baby that looked like it hadn’t been bathed in weeks yet the parents had new iPhones, a domestic violence situation was going on, etc.). Everyone stared at us as we sat down.
After about 10 minutes the police show up… in my head, it’s because of the methheads screaming and throwing things or the woman actively scared of her skinhead bf. The officers said a quick hello to a methhead, asked them to say hello to their mom, and then came right over to us. They sat down at our booth blocking us from being able to get up. Now, my mum is black, my dad is white and I’m visibly mixed. Everyone in the diner is white including the cops. They wanted our names, our addresses, our car info, our IDs, our room info. Where we are staying, how long, and if we had firearms. They made it incredibly clear that we were not welcome in their town and that “people like [us]” should be cautious in this area. They suggested we be careful “flaunting [our] lifestyle.” They asked for our food to come out to go and did not leave until we had left. When our food came they stood up and put their hands on their holsters and told us to have a good night while we grabbed our things and left.
As we went outside I could see a Confederate bumper stick and Trump/Pence bumper sticker on the police vehicle. We ended up begrudgingly staying over in town as it was too late to leave and the hotel owner was really sweet (originally from Macon). We had promised the officer we’d be gone by 8, we left at 7 am the next day and did not look back. I love Georgia but that experience was the last time I went into the mountains in rural Georgia. Like I literally didn’t sleep that night. They were so… scary that I thought I was not going to survive the night. He made me feel like he was disgusted that I even existed and it was truly disturbing.
#3
A long time ago, in 1982, I was flying to Thailand from the United States. We had a stop in Belgium and then at Dubai Airport. There was a lot of tension with Iran at the time so security at Dubai was very tight. We were going to be allowed to get off the plane but were warned not to take any photos. I stuck my small Instamatic camera in my inside jacket pocket, rather than leave it on the plane as it was being cleaned and serviced.
The plane stopped on the tarmac and a set of rolling steps was used for us to leave. Armed soldiers were on either side of the line of people going into the terminal and we were marched, at a very fast pace inside.
When we were allowed to get back onto the plane it had been moved to a typical gate we could enter from inside the building. Each person was patted down before being allowed on. As a soldier was patting me down his hand hit my camera. He began shouting at me in Arabic, I didn’t speak the language so, I did not understand what he was saying. He motioned to my pocket, indicating he wanted me to remove what was there. I slowly swung open my jacket as he pointed his weapon at my chest and took the safety off. I figured I was in trouble for having a camera, as we were warned to not take pictures. He continued to talk very fast as I very slowly reached into the inside pocket of my jacket and pulled out my camera. As soon as he saw it was a camera he made a spitting sound, turned away from me, and waved at me to get on the plane. No big deal, I guess, well other than having an agitated soldier point a weapon at my chest with the safety off.
#4
Years ago, my cousin received tickets to a Kiss concert for his birthday and took me along as we were only born 6 days apart and were best friends. I lived about 40 minutes from our hometown and the concert was another 2 hours and 15 minutes from my apartment so he was going to pick me up on the way and then spend the night at my place before going home. His engine blew on the way down to get me and my uncle had to come to bring him their ‘extra in case someone needs it beater car’. This put us 30 minutes behind schedule so we decided to take a shortcut to shave off some time and we ended up lost in the ghetto of a major city. I was wearing a red bandanna on my head and my cousin heavy metaled out driving a beat-up old person car and turns out we were in Crip territory and people were staring us down hard. We had to stop at a light and a man approached openly carrying a gun. He told us he was doing us a favor because he could tell we were just two lost white kids, and let us know what territory we were in and that I needed to lose the bandanna, etc. He then told us how to get out of the area and back to the highway. We were so scared for a few minutes and then it turned to being grateful that we were approached by a Crip with a conscious. And yes I left the bandanna off the rest of the night!
#5
Malaria in Malawi 22 years ago. At the time Malawi was the 3rd poorest country in the world. Nicest people in the world though. They were still reusing needles in Africa at that time in some places. Spent 4 days in the hospital with a Quinine drip. Apparently, they thought I was going to pass away. I was out of it most of the time. I wasn’t scared, but my husband still will not tell me about the sights he saw in the hospital. We were newlyweds and this man slept on the hard floor every night to make sure they used new needles. He also cleaned the hospital room and private bathroom with bleach before he would let me leave the bed, once I was able to. I am alive because I was a tourist and could afford to pay for the hospital and my husband made sure they used new needles. I owe him and those African doctors my life. I never really had thought about white privilege before but now I will never forget it. I still have survivor’s guilt over it.
#6
I was in the Air Force from 84 to 90 then Reserves from 90 to 96. During my reserve time, we were traveling from Youngstown Ohio to RAF Upper Heyford in England. Flying in a C-130 we needed to stop over in Lajes Field in the Azores.
About an hour outside of Lajes, we hit some terrible weather. If you have never flown in a C-130, there are not really seats. All the gear is on pallets in the center line of the completely open fuselage and there are pull-down “seats” along both sides of the plane facing the middle.
The weather got so bad I was afraid the pallets would come loose and crush us. Now the C-130 is an AWESOME aircraft. Stable, can fly just about anywhere, it’s even the largest plane to land on an aircraft carrier and is even equipped for snow ski landings. It’s a beast.
We’re on the final approach and bouncing up and down, side to side and I’m thinking “THIS IS IT! THIS IS HOW I GO!”
We hit the runway so hard and were tipping at about a 30-degree angle I thought we were going to flip. The pilots did a great job but we still went off the runway and had to do an emergency exit into the storm.
I was never so glad to put my feet on the ground.
The trouble was, we had to get back on the plane the next day to complete our journey. Now THAT was rough!
#7
We were staying in a cabin in Shenandoah National Park and decided to drive the length of Skyline Drive. It’s a beautiful drive with incredible vistas into the valleys below. We got to the end and turned around to start making the drive back to our cabin about 50 miles away. Suddenly a very dense fog descended and night began to fall. I white-knuckled that long, scary drive going about 15-20 miles an hour barely able to see the tail lights of the car in front of me on some pretty steep curves. What was most terrifying was when the taillights would disappear and I would think they just drove off the edge. Then they would reappear again right in front of me. I could hardly see the sheer rock walls beside me. Imagine diving with your windshield painted. When we finally saw the entrance to our campground area I felt the most relief I’ve ever felt in my life. The drive back took almost two hours and I was vividly and painfully alert for every single second of it.
#8
Years ago (pre-COVID) I was visiting a friend in Niagara Falls NY and we took the walking bridge into Canada for a nice night out. (I was born in Canada but moved to the US as a child.) On the way back, a young customs agent asked me at the border back into the US “Where were you born?” I say “Canada.” He then asks “How long will you be visiting the US?” I reply “I live here.” I had recently gotten married so when he went to look me up on the computer, my name wasn’t found. And neither was my maiden name! He then asked me for my green card, to which I responded that I’m a US citizen who was naturalized, and he didn’t believe me! I told him I can prove it, my mother is American. Then he looked HER up, and couldn’t find her either! Mum has been married three times and after being detained for almost two hours we finally discovered that in the citizenship database, they have her listed not under her birth name, or her current married name, or even her first husband’s name, but under the last name of my father (husband 2). It might not seem very harrowing, but for two solid hours, I was terrified that they weren’t going to let me back in!
#9
I accidentally walked off a cliff. I fell into the water, so I was fine, but I seriously wonder how braindead I was that I casually walked straight over a cliff! The other tourists were not impressed.
#10
I went to Minsk in 2017. The trip itself was a fine, beautiful city and the people were lovely, even entertaining my sorry attempts to try to speak Russian.
The scary part happened the morning I left. I’m a type 1 diabetic and had a very low blood sugar episode in my sleep, woke up incredibly confused and had to drag myself to the shared kitchen of the guesthouse to try to find something with carbohydrates. (I’d bought snacks the night before but was too confused to find them when waking.)
The other guests, who spoke no English at all, heard me making noise trying to get food at 5 am and came to help me, getting me juice and bread. They then helped me get cleaned up a little and made sure I had my stuff together for the flight.
The taxi driver to the airport was nice, but only accepted cash, which I didn’t have so it was a mad dash to the ATM at the airport and then to meet with disability services to get me to the plane. I was out of it the whole time, still coming back from waking up with my sugar so low, and it was just a terrifying experience.
I’m very lucky everyone was so kind to me. Managed to make the flight and got a free sandwich on the plane when I explained I’d been having blood sugar issues.
#11
Driving from Massachusetts up to Maine to visit family. The weather reports said there might be flurries along the way, but nothing to worry about. When we left our house, there was a light drizzle. Not far up the highway, it began to ice, then snow. Suddenly, there was a lot of snow and we watched cars and tractor-trailer trucks spin off the road on all sides. Since the weather forecast hadn’t seen this storm coming, the roads were untreated. I just focused as hard as possible on staying in what I hoped was the center lane as the weather got worse. I didn’t dare pull into the breakdown lane and stop for fear of being hit. The snow got heavier, turned to ice, and back to snow again. Based on where we were, we knew our only escape hope was to make it to Rt. 1 in Kittery, where we knew there’d be places to safely park + food, and motels. My wife kept giving directions from her phone that mapped with my memory and we just kept moving until we reached a parking lot in Kittery and were safe. Once stopped, we both broke into tears from the experience. When we looked at the weather map on our phones, an ice storm surrounded us and all we could do was wait until it ended. Finally, the warm front came north enough that we could head back home.
#12
Many years ago I took a trip with my girlfriend to Paris. It was something we joked about on our first date and we made it happen 2 years later. We were both in our early 20s and it was the early ’90s. We scrimped and saved for a year and we rented a couple of rooms in a very, very old apartment building to spend a month there.
On the day of the flight to Paris, we were both excited and scared at the same time. Neither of us had ever been on an adventure like this. The plane took off and we were on our way.
About an hour into the flight, the pilot came on and made an announcement in French. People on the plane started to look around nervously and I could tell whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
I asked my GF what was said because she was fluent in French and I could barely ask where the restroom was. She told me that there was a small problem with the plane and that we were turning around to go back to San Francisco. I tried to remain calm, cool, and collected but on the inside, I was freaking out.
When we got back to SF and landed, ALL OF THE FIRETRUCKS AND AMBULANCES we’re on the tarmac. We were able to land and everyone inside the plane started clapping and cheering because we were alive.
We had to wait on the plane for 4 hours while they fixed the issue.
After things were fixed, we took off and the rest of the flight was uneventful.
Turns out that there was some sort of issue with the landing gear/system. If they would have continued with the flight, we’d have, at least, made it to Paris before we crashed.
The rest of the trip went nothing like we had planned but that’s a story for another time.
#13
We were going to my Grandparents’ house and right in the country, the car stopped like, dead-bolted. I was terrified it was 8 pm and the starting signs of civilization were 70 miles away… Until the kind passerby or rather the Good Samaritan helped us get that car started again.
P.S. There was no cell service.
#14
Traveling from a remote Aboriginal community in outback Australia in a Cessna 206… the pilot was a little nervous … calling up on the radio and slowing the engine.
We eventually arrived at our home airstrip. I asked the pilot if there was a problem … he took me to the front of the plane and grabbed hold of one of the two propeller blades which just flopped around loose in its housing.
The only thing stopping the propeller from flying off was a retaining ring.
Pilot reckons it was touch and go there and we had only just made it back.
Almost had an underwear mishap right there and then.
#15
Stopped at a diner in a very small town on my way to TN. Waited for the bathroom for 10 mins as the door was locked. Finally asked the waitress if maybe no one was in there and she explained that unfortunately, some truckers will fall asleep in there. “They’ve been on the road for hours, hun.”
Long story short… the guy was deceased on the toilet. No one was shocked except me. It was as if it happened on a regular basis.
#16
A high school teacher would take students abroad every summer. In Paris, the bus stopped for a souvenir run. We were told to be back in ten minutes. I was late, and the bus left without me. My teacher had four students, including me. The other group who shared our bus had 24 teens and three adults. The leader of the other group was the one who noticed I was missing, an hour and a half later. They went back to the shop, but Montezuma got me, and I’d gone to find a bathroom. Afterward, I had an ice cream, got on the subway, and rode to our station. I went to our hotel and filled out my travel diary. Why scary? I didn’t speak a word of French. My teacher knew I’d be sensible, and kept calling our hotel room. The phone’s ringer was broken. She heard the rings on her end, but the phone in the room didn’t ring. Since I didn’t answer, I obviously wasn’t at the hotel, so I had to be lost in a huge city, in a foreign country, with no language. Those were the longest three hours of my teacher’s life.
#17
Getting heatstroke and passing out while on a stopover in St Louis. Being a pasty limey I had no idea what being in 30-degree heat was like back then, but of course, now it’s the norm every summer even over here
#18
Not my story, but my brother’s…
I have three younger siblings (one sister and two brothers). My whole family went on our annual trip to South Dakota. We decided to hike up Mt. Coolidge. The hike is about a mile and a half up a twisty gravel road, so sight is limited. Since we all walk at different speeds, we all got somewhat separated from each other. I was way ahead of everyone. At some point, my brother (F) looked back to see how far behind the other four people were. F only saw my dad and other brothers (D) walking together. F continued up the mountain. Eventually, I and my two brothers met at the top of the mountain. F asked D where our dad was. D had absolutely no idea what F was talking about. D said our dad was at least a 1/4 to a 1/2 a mile behind us the whole time. Our dad eventually made it up the hill and confirmed that he had never walked with D. To this day, F insists he saw a ghost walking beside D. Creeps me out because we were in the middle of the Black Hills in the middle of nowhere.
#19
When I heard children playing and laughing outside my hotel room. At 3 a.m. And it happens many times in different cities, different hotels. Since then I’m struggling to trust my own hearing, especially late at night.
#20
Finding out the emergency door on the plane could have flown off in the air, I was seated in that seat.
#21
(I am a US Navy Vet.)
At the onset of September 11, 2001.
Operation Enduring Freedom
Backstory:
I was deployed from my East Coast Command (Yes, I was stationed in DC when 9/11 happened) to my West Coast Command (a *Boat* SHIP/ Aircraft Carrier Nuclear Power). They (the Boat) had already set sail, for (the coast/off coast) Afghanistan. With our Battlegroup.
Made it to the West Coat:
I had to check in with the Base Admin office. Base Admin, sent a message to my Boat, letting them know I had checked in and my estimated travel time.
I was issued my travel vouchers, my airline tickets, travel money, and updated orders. Along with my travel briefing (Traveling While Active Military, during War Time.)
What Happened While Traveling:
1st/2nd Airport (US)
We (there were like 40 of us traveling together) made it to the US airport.
The Yeoman that made the travel arrangements did NOT pay attention while booking our flights. Said Yeoman, first of all, overbook the flight by over 100 people on the first flight (1st delay by 10 hours). We had to go back to Base and wait for our flight. No, we did not want to wait at the USO in the airport, due to other military personnel flying through and needing the space more than us.
3rd airport (Overseas).
Boarding the Plane.
This big commotion started. We were so confused, at the fuss going on. We have been traveling all day.
Mistakes were made. We were booked on a flight going to Afghanistan, instead of Bahrain. They got up from their seats and started running toward us, to fight. People were hurt. I was more unsettled/irked than scared. We had to have the people from the local US Air Force Base come get us and rebook our flights. They (USAF) had to call the nearest Naval Station to get this settled.
We were still HOURS away from getting to Bahrain, and our Boat.
Finally, made it to Bahrain.
So, we board our Helicopter, to take us to our Boat.
Helicopter decided it was NOT having it that day. We get over the water. We see our Boat, in the distance. The Pilot is like we have to turn around, NOW.
The helicopter starts shaking and we smell smoke. We SEE SMOKE. The Pilot tells us not to worry, he and his crew have it all under control. We LAND back on base safely. I sit on the ground, ( with several others) until one of the crew from the helicopter comes over and sits down with us. He starts talking with us.
I look at him and say: I am not moving from this spot until someone brings me a phone (cordless), so I can talk to my mother. I just saw all of my 28 years of life flash in front of me.
He cracks up laughing and says I will pay for your call and food if you just come with me. You all, are blocking the other Helicopters from landing. (did not realize we had sat down in the landing area for the helicopters)
I look up, and sure enough, there are like 3 of them, waiting to land. LMAO.
Note: I tried to keep out as much of my personal information as possible. If you are doubting my recalling of this. I am ok with all of that.
#22
Rural highway. Five years old. Have to pee. Mom pulls over. Find a bush. Before I finish, she drives off. I wait. And wait. Start thumbing it. 10 minutes later, catch a ride. It’s Mom.
#23
I went to Canada and the people were not nice. For example, I smiled at a cashier while buying a jacket and he made a rude comment about me. Nothing really mean, but… where have all the nice Canadians gone?
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