I am often asked about scary situations on a journey. I don’t know if it’s completely possible to avoid them if you explore the world on your own, but it is definitely possible to change your attitude and call them adventures.
We love to hear about adventures and watch movies like Indiana Jones, but when it comes to our journey, we often tend to overwhelm ourselves with many scary scenarios that never happened and probably never will. Don’t worry, afer all bad decisions make good stories 😉
“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it is lethal.”
― Paulo Coelho
Drowning in Bali
I was swimming at the famous beach in Bali, the current was strong that day but still ok, and I love swimming especially in that place, so I decided to take a deep. Suddenly, waves covered and started swirling me like in a washing machine, the water was very turbulent, bubbles everywhere and I couldn’t even see where is the surface. I was drowning and my heart was ponding in a hyper speed. Abruptly, I found myself close to the shore, stood the ground on my shaking legs and the water was up to knee… I didn’t even tell anyone about my drowning episode 😅
My advise to you, keep in mind that the real current could be very dangerous.
The radioactive Chernobyl
Trip to Chernobyl could be tense, especially if you are a sensitive person. When I entered the radioactive zones, decades after the nuclear catastrophe, I followed my guide, and every rule. Everything was ok, but I felt a bit scared for the whole time. In some places, a Guiger device that shows the lever of radiation was going crazy and higher than the scale. I was learning about the history standing in those places with tears in my eyes. “The creepy kindergarten” and old radioactive dolls totally creeped me out.
The socks pervert
I was waiting for my flight at the airport and one man asked if I would sell him my pair of socks, the one that I was wearing… At first I thought that I misunderstood but he kept asking, took his wallet out and said that he will give me all cash that he had. I said no and ran away, glad that there’s a lot of security at the airport. Btw. The socks were normal, barely visible, nothing fancy 😉 I could sell it for good money, but felt scared and sorry for my socks.
Wind from the North Pole
A person from Iceland advised me & my boyfriend to rent a regular car for our trip around the Island, so we did, and then the winter of the century came, snow storm and extreme wind. The roads were closed and we got stuck for a few hours in scary weather conditions. The only cars that were driving were with huge, like really huge tires (taller than me). The wind and snow were pulling us away from the road, even though my bf was driving 10km/h. I was happy that he was a driver, if I were alone, I would cry, and call to ask for a helicopter. Or a teleport 😉
Left in the middle of nowhere at night
We arrived at the airport at night with my boy friend, and decided to take a bus taxi with locals (in the Asian country). We couldn’t understand anything and realised that it was not a good choice because at some point we drove under the bridge and stopped. Everyone left and I said that I’m not going out because it is in the middle of nowhere, it is dark and scary, but the driver was showing me to leave, so I finally did. Then we had to ran after the locals who knew the way out, of course not knowing where they were going. After an hour of walk, when we found our hotel, I could finally breath.
Birthday on the boat
Sounds nice huh? It was, until the storm came. It was my birthday and we took a bout ride from one island to the other to swim with whale sharks, which I was very excited about. Offshore the waves started to be bigger and bigger, the bout was jumping and I had thoughts like “really? Will I die on my birthday?!”. I also started imagining all these water creatures like sharks and scary fish 😉 We looked like our tan bleached in a moment, but have eventually survived 🙂
Safari on our tent
One night at the safari camp some wild animals were trying get inside our tent, pulling the strings, jumping, scratching and digging under. I was never thats scared in my life, I wanted to cry but I couldn’t, my body was like paralysed. They were probably hyenas, but I cannot tell for sure, as I haven’t unzipped the tent to check it out…
Armed jeep in the Middle East desert
We were driving a car with my beloved on a desert in the Middle East and suddenly saw a jeep with seriously armed men staring at us and driving in our direction. Nothing happened besides the looks, but this was definitely a scary moment.
Scary admirer of Polish girls
One of my first trips I’ve taken was to a small and wonderful country Montenegro with my cousins. We were very young and obviously had many adventures on the way, but one of them was scary. We arrived in the mountain area, had to find a place to stay and decided to go with one man who would take us to his chalets. Short after squeezing into his old car, we got stressed about his style of driving. Moreover he started staring at me and talking about his admiration for Polish girls. I will not write exactly what he was saying, but I was freaking out. And we were heading to some remote place in the mountains… My cousins were making fun of me later, but I think we were all nervously laughing. You know this type of laugh, you feel like having a heart attack but you’re giggling 😉
Creepy policemen in the forest
We were driving a car with my beloved one in the African country with right-hand traffic, and in the forest where there was no other cars, we were stopped by a police officer. I opened the window by my side, he put his elbows against the door and started checking me up. Next he started talking and behaving in a very strange way indicating that he could be on drugs. We had a long conversation and he was teaching us more words in his native language, and my beloved asked “so, how is goodbye?” And we were all repeating “goodbye” many times, so he would let us go. It happened eventually and my boy friend said to me “I’m still shaking, I think he murdered a real police officer and took his clothes! I was considering if we should ran away, so you wouldn’t become his wife and I got arrested. I’m not used to driving on the right side of the car, so I was mentally preparing to start the car fast, in case we have no other choice!”. We were that desperate and scared…
Forced to leave the train
I was asked out from the train by women in a Muslim country, to put it in a delicate way. I couldn’t understand everything, but women in the wagon were staring at me not in a nice way, and were talking about me in their language. I guess the reason was my clothing: loose but not long and not all covering. I also had a scarf on my arms but not on my head as it is not required in that country. I was confused at first and couldn’t believe what’s going on, they were gesticulating and some young girl told me in English that I have to leave on the next station…
People may say that it could be my fault as I didn’t respect enough tradition of others, but it was not my intention. I sometimes forget that people still judge themselves based on their religion, appearance, skin color and place of birth. It makes me sad.
Night trip in a chained train
I took a night train in a country where some people have a problem with tourists, and I felt scared when I saw the staff closing and chaining entrances on both sides of the wagon. This thick metal chain looked frightening and worked on my imagination, but thankfully everything was ok. I also spent a lot of time with nice travellers as we were all locked in the same place…
In the first line of the protest like Charlie Chaplin
I navigated me and my boyfriend to the center of the protest. We didn’t know what kind of gathering it was, but suddenly heard shooting. At first I was telling to myself that this sound must be fireworks, just a bit different than normal… but at some point I had to face the truth, it was not a firework, and we had to evacuate ourselves ASAP. Later, one lokal lady was showing and translating us tv news about the protest, which escalated and people were splashed with water.
I couldn’t believe that this happened because a few months before we were on a ferry watching old mute movies with Charlie Chaplin. I saw it for the first time, and was laughing when Charlie became leader of a protest not even knowing about it. My boyfriend said to me “I wonder why it never happened to you” and sighed…
Malvina Dunder 
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