Story 14
In India, I checked in at the hotel. A friend calls from the neighboring room and says, “Is this normal here?” I enter his room, he shows me a curtain on the wall, which seems to cover the window. Then he opens the curtain, and there’s a hole that leads to the flat in the neighboring building.
There’s no window on that side, nothing, just people walking around, putting dinner on the table, watching TV. We pulled the curtain back to its original position. © Kaiebard / Pikabu
Story 15
During my holiday in Turkey, I got into the habit of swimming in the morning, at 7-8 a.m. So, one day I’m swimming: fish, sand, shells… But then I decided to look around.
I turn my head and see a huge sea turtle! I look at it, it looks at me, and the next second I’m already on the shore. I don’t know what I was scared of at that moment (the turtle obviously didn’t care much about me), but I’ve never swum that fast like that morning. © Overheard / Ideer
Story 16
In Indonesia, it all started after we had had a nice dinner in a local restaurant, far away from tourists and the like. Maybe that was the first mistake. The dishes contained some fresh vegetables, and we forgot all the warnings about not drinking tap water, not under any circumstances. And fresh vegetables are often washed in tap water, of course.
Near the late evening, first my sisters, then my mother and father got really sick. The night turned to be a vomiting feast for the 4 of them. I was the only one not feeling sick at all. The next day, my sisters and parents still were really sick, so they stayed in bed. I decided to swim. A lot.
Feeling heroic at the time, I planned to cross the 20 meter-long swimming pool a dazzling 250 times, thus reaching the magical 5000-meter limit. But there were a couple of things I missed.
First of all, it was very hot outside, and swimming under the burning sun, I had totally forgotten to apply sunscreen. And secondly, I forgot to bring water with me, or food. The latter non-decision made me really thirsty after a while, but also my stomach started to bother me, as it was crying for food in bombastic thunder for most of the second half of the swim. The sun lotion ordeal was worse though.
When I came back to our room, my parents screamed, “You’re back!!! You look like a lobster!!!” And that was an understatement, my dear friend. When the day progressed, I started to get a headache, and feel nauseous.
A full-blooded sunstroke was opening its wings, and invited me inside. And by the time my sisters and parents felt okay again, I was vomiting all over the place. Ah, Jakarta. We fought, and you won. © Thomas Cayne / Quora
Story 17
A few years ago we went on holiday with friends to the sea. There were bicycles for rent in the hotel. I asked if we could rent them, but one of the bikes had a flat tire, I asked where I could get a pump.
They said that they didn’t have a pump, but I could go to a shop and buy one. Could you at least tell me the address? They replied, “You need it, you look for it.”
In the end, 5 people who were ready to rent 5 bikes for 2–3 hours just went to the beach. I don’t even know how to rate this service. © DenimDef / Pikabu
Story 18
We witnessed a real waterfall in our hotel suite when we turned off the air conditioner. I was lucky that, a second before that, I picked up my new digital camera from the table that was standing right below the air conditioner. © C est La Vie Lily / ADME
