Vacation trips are always fun and memorable experiences. But there are some which stand out even more so than others because of some truly unforgettable hilarious incidents. The Goan got a few people to recount their funny travel tales
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Summer. The word itself is enough to conjure up happy images of the entire family coming together to plan the next getaway, of the excited digging out of suitcases and skimming through the net looking for the best travel deals,of lounging on the beach, drink in hand feeling the warm rays of the sun beating down on you. And yes, of course the promise of days without the daily stress of work. Indeed, nothing quite beats that feeling of anticipation that you experience days before taking off on that heavenly trip.
And one always comes away with memories to cherish. Be it the exhilerating feeling of trying something out for the first time – perhaps you went paragliding in the himalayas or finally went bungee jumping, or the happiness of finally visiting a famous monument that everyone has been talking about or just the joy of finding a great buy or trying out a unique cuisine – these are indeed experiences of a lifetime.
But along with these, there are also those 'oops' moments or 'facepalm' incidents that almost always happen on a vacation. Maybe your uncle wandered off on his own an got lost in the new city and no one realised until much later ( in complete Home Alone film style) or the locals at the place you put up at kept giving you strange looks and you couldn't figure out why. Or you happily dug into a dish only to realise later that it was made from some strange ingredients. These are the tales that you still chortle at the memory of and that you never get fed up of recounting no matter how old or embarassing they are.
Seeing stars
The latter sentiment was especially true in the case of college professor Dhruv Usgaonkar from Caranzalem when he undertook the Himalayan trek back in May 2010. “We were at Summit Sour Tal Lake in the Dhauladar range at a temperature of -4 degrees. Sometime at around midnight, I trudged out of my tent to go visit the toilet tent and I was joined by three others,” he narrates. “While we were inside, a powerful gust of wind blew our way and the tent flew away!”
What's in a name
Fashion designer Melvyn Noronha from Siolim on the other hand experienced some unexpected plane drama while on his way from Netherlands to Ecuador. “ I met this Chinese guy on the plane and was telling him about my national costume design for Miss India and Miss United Continents and he was completely blown away. Mind you he only spoke Chinese and Spanish. I also spoke about how Gail D'Silva ( former Miss India runner up from Goa) has worked for some children in support of various charities and then asked him if I could video record him and send a Chinese message of support to Gail. He however got so furious, stood up and made a big scene in the plane!” he recounts. “ What happened? Well, he thought I was asking him to give a Chinese message of support to gays. It took him quite some time to understand that there exists a girl by the name of Gail.”
No escape
And while holidays are all about leaving your work and school tensions behind. Willeta Soares, a law student from St Cruz, wasn't so lucky. “ My family and I decided to take a holiday to Belgaum some years ago, away from the worries about school and strict teachers. Unfortunately guess who was checking in at the reception counter of the hotel! Our very stern Science teacher. The funny part was she was with her boyfriend I think and tried to hide herself away from us!” she says laughing.
You're gonna hear me snore
If you are thought that someone going off to sleep in the middle of you telling your story to them is bad, imagine a tiger deciding you wern't worth it's time as was the case in Janet Araujo's case. “ I was on a trip with my college students and were visiting the zoo. We had just stopped infront of the tiger enclave. The students had their cameras out ready to start clicking pictures and I decided to wave at it,” says Araujo, from St Cruz, who is a college lecturer. “Guess what. It sort of rolled it's eyes when it saw me, turned around, directly went to it's artificial den and went off to sleep! And it didn't wake up until I had left.”
Boo!
No matter how old you are, haunted house stories always leave you enraptured and also admittedly bring out the inner scared child in you. Gauravi Keni from Margao had one such tale to share. “While travelling to Kulu Manali my friend and I stayed for a night at Palampur. Truth be told the hotel did look a litle scary and a group of boys from our school tried to scare us by spreading a rumour that the hotel was haunted. But my friend decided to give them a taste of their own medicine,” she recalls chuckling. “He was sleeping in their room and suddenly woke up like he was possessed. He walked out of the room without turning back and pretending that he couldn't hear them calling out to him. He walked out like a zoombie up to a small temple kind of a thing that was present there, stopped there for a while, then turned, came back and slept. The boys who started off with this rumour were terrified!”
DDLJ reenacted
Recalling yet another tale, Keni stated that they were travelling to Goa from Bangalore a few years ago by train and happened to reach the station a little late, thanks to an annoying rickshaw driver. “When we reached the platform there was one train there already but we thought it wasn't ours so we settled down to wait right next to it. It was only when the train started moving that the coolie told us that it was our train only! So we all started running DDLJ style after it,” she giggles, adding that they didn't catch it however and had to take the bus home the next day.
Defying gravity
Frederica Coelho from Moira had an interesting education on how to travel by train while on a college trip to Bangalore. “ I was travelling by train for the first time and was really excited about going through tunnels. The stupid part was that my friends convinced me that gravity decreases while we go through tunnels and we tend to start floating if we don't hold on tightly,” she says looking abashed. “ So when we went through a tunnel, there I was holding on tightly while my friends also pretended to do the same. After we were through and seeing me still holding on, they broke out laughing.”
