Cutting vacation short because foreign country is... too foreign
Jul 15, 2018, 8:46 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Virginia City Highlands
Programs: Nothing anymore after 20 years
Posts: 6,900
Cutting vacation short because foreign country is... too foreign
Have a question to the audience - have you, visiting your friends/relatives, or your friends/relatives who visited you - cut short of vacation and went back home because the foreign country ended up, well... too foreign to handle?
I mean: if climate, probably the most contributing factor, but also food/diet, modes/means of transportation/getting from place to place, culture/behaviour/religion/etc... was so different (or difficult) that you (or your visitors) said - 'enough, I am going back!'
Let's not consider obvious force majeure cases like violence/war on streets or hurricane/earthquake/flood and other man-made or natural disasters. I am more interested in cases when you went to visit your friends/relatives in far away place (or other way around), hosts/guests have normal life in own countries but for the visiting party things did not go that well.
If there was such case, what was the most contributing factor in the decision to go back? What you have learned at the result?
P.S. Yes, I know that lack of planning/research would be the reason when such case happened, but unfortunately, you can't plan everything...
Thanks.
I mean: if climate, probably the most contributing factor, but also food/diet, modes/means of transportation/getting from place to place, culture/behaviour/religion/etc... was so different (or difficult) that you (or your visitors) said - 'enough, I am going back!'
Let's not consider obvious force majeure cases like violence/war on streets or hurricane/earthquake/flood and other man-made or natural disasters. I am more interested in cases when you went to visit your friends/relatives in far away place (or other way around), hosts/guests have normal life in own countries but for the visiting party things did not go that well.
If there was such case, what was the most contributing factor in the decision to go back? What you have learned at the result?
P.S. Yes, I know that lack of planning/research would be the reason when such case happened, but unfortunately, you can't plan everything...
Thanks.
Jul 15, 2018, 10:12 am
#2
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Boulder
Programs: AA Plat, CX Silver
Posts: 2,361
I was once in Hanoi in the midst of an absolutely miserable heat wave. Woke up one morning, saw a cheap fare to Sydney leaving that day, packed and hopped in a cab to the airport. Finished out my vacation in Australia instead of Vietnam.
Jul 15, 2018, 2:41 pm
#4
Community Director Emerita
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Anywhere warm
Posts: 33,742
Two times, we cut a trip one day short due to local holidays. We were in Turkey where we had a fantastic holiday driving around the country. As we approached Istanbul, we saw herds of sheep along the highway. It turned out that Eid was approaching, a four day festival when the sheep are slaughtered for consumption and for giving to those with greater need. Virtually everything shut down and there was nothing to do. Our ticket transited Frankfurt on the way home so we managed to get on the Frankfurt flight a day earlier. I have great memories of heading to Heidelberg and seeing the castle there.
Much more recently, we visited Hanoi. Yes, I knew that New Year was while we were there but I didn't realize that stores closed the prior day. It was much like Istanbul where everything we thought we could do we couldn't. We managed to fly out a day early to Hong Kong where we had the great good fortune of being upgraded at the Conrad. We saw a spectacular fireworks display from four different barges in the harbor from our suite.
Much more recently, we visited Hanoi. Yes, I knew that New Year was while we were there but I didn't realize that stores closed the prior day. It was much like Istanbul where everything we thought we could do we couldn't. We managed to fly out a day early to Hong Kong where we had the great good fortune of being upgraded at the Conrad. We saw a spectacular fireworks display from four different barges in the harbor from our suite.
Jul 15, 2018, 3:59 pm
#5
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: SFO/TPA
Programs: DL PM
Posts: 199
I absolutely would have if I could have cut short a trip to Bali, but there were other people and and prepaid non-refundables involved. It was a resort in Legian. The resort was excellent but boring and we ended up stuck in it the whole time because Legian is crowded and noisy and generally unpleasant, and the beach was absolutely filthy—the worst beach I’d ever seen by a long shot: dirty diapers and garbage on the sand, plastic bags floating in the water, trash everywhere, even a dead rat. Touts up and down the beach harassing you to buy their crap. The heat and humidity was stifling, you had to cover your sweaty, slimy self in bug repellant and sunscreen all day long to avoid dengue and sunburn. Our hotel balcony overlooked an empty lot that was likewise covered in trash. Truly disgusting. The resort provided bottled water—as much as you wanted—because you can’t even brush your teeth with what comes out of the tap. We toyed with the idea of hiring a car to get out of Legian for a day but we'd already spent more time than we wanted sitting in Bali’s insane traffic so we just stuck it out. For the record, we enjoyed several great days in a different part of Bali, near Ubud, but I wanted to kiss the ground at the airport when we could finally leave that wretched beach resort.
Jul 15, 2018, 4:44 pm
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2004
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We bailed out of Rome when we were stuck there in August and especially the BVM celebration. Nothing to do. We took the train to the beach with about a million Italians, asking ourselves “so much for church holy days, they should be on their knees”. We had a great day.
Jul 15, 2018, 9:06 pm
#8
Suspended
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 1,808
No. Part of travel is the exposure to other cultures and to learn to expand your horizons. Tough it out. Yes, there have been times where I was miserable due to heat, cleanliness, illness etc but the thought of leaving never crossed my mind.
Jul 15, 2018, 9:36 pm
#9
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: SFO/TPA
Programs: DL PM
Posts: 199
Jul 15, 2018, 10:56 pm
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Pittsburgh
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If you've already experienced enough of the culture to determine that you're suffering enough that you want to go through the cost/effort to change long-made plans, "toughing it out" just sounds like self-flaggelation for no purpose. Hating something even more doesn't sound like a valuable self-development exercise.
Jul 15, 2018, 11:02 pm
#11
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 42,016
It's funny you mention Hanoi because I was there a few years ago, and my boss decided we should work during the vacation, so he flew me back to Shanghai. I honestly wasn't that bummed though.
Jul 15, 2018, 11:15 pm
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Virginia City Highlands
Programs: Nothing anymore after 20 years
Posts: 6,900
So you can’t imagine the situation that hosts do everything reasonably possible to please their guests but due to culture/climate shock they just can’t enjoy anything and refuse to even leave home?
Jul 15, 2018, 11:30 pm
#13
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presuming guests and hosts have more than a casual or online (read: AirBnB) relationship, it seems like what we have here is a failure to communicate on multiple fronts: I think the travelers (guests) should have discussed culture/climate concerns with each other beforehand, and then with the hosts; I also think the hosts should have perhaps anticipated that the guests might be less than fully adaptable to some of the unique aspects of the destination
Jul 16, 2018, 12:33 am
#14
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 85
It seems Vietnam features a bit here although I loved my trip there a long time ago. So long ago that one of the ways to get a visa when travelling from Australia was to go on an organised "study" tour. We had 2 tour guides, one Australian organised by the local company and one from Vietnam.
Our guide became increasing physically unwell during the trip and eventually had to leave telling us (quite bravely i thought) that she could not cope with the stress she was feeling by being in a foreign country. A strange choice to become a tour guide but apparently she had not traveled previously. I hasten to add she was incredibly kind and polite to our hosts and very apologetic.
As an aside it was also a strange trip as we had an 80 yo grandmother on the tour with 2 VERY heavy bags. We cursed them until we discovered Vietnam at the time was not set up for tourists. She would magically produce our every need from the bags and I fondly recall our afternoon teas with her. Yep she had brought an electric kettle with her and a tea set.
Our guide became increasing physically unwell during the trip and eventually had to leave telling us (quite bravely i thought) that she could not cope with the stress she was feeling by being in a foreign country. A strange choice to become a tour guide but apparently she had not traveled previously. I hasten to add she was incredibly kind and polite to our hosts and very apologetic.
As an aside it was also a strange trip as we had an 80 yo grandmother on the tour with 2 VERY heavy bags. We cursed them until we discovered Vietnam at the time was not set up for tourists. She would magically produce our every need from the bags and I fondly recall our afternoon teas with her. Yep she had brought an electric kettle with her and a tea set.