Holiday horror: Part 1

[Watchman]

Holiday horror: Part 1
By Madeline Lin, Simply Her | Wed, May 5 2010

From otherworldly nocturnal visitors to the Chinese mafia, it's all manners of mayhem as readers share their worst travel experiences.

I had a nocturnal visitor

When I was 10, I went to Indonesia with my parents where we shared a room.

One night, I woke up to my dad asking, Nan (my mum’s name), is that you? I looked up and saw the side view of a hunched over old man, who was glowing eerily. He hobbled across the room and then vanished in less than 10 seconds.

My dad quickly yanked me under the covers and muttered, “Don’t look!” We stayed like that until daybreak, while mum slept on.

I was too sleepy and young to be scared then, but looking back now, my skin crawls at the memory.” Elsie Guo, 28, teacher


WHAT YOU CAN DO

Nick Lim, regional director of Contiki Holidays, says: “Supernatural things do happen - respect it, go back to sleep and ask to move to another room the next day.”

I was stalked by an Ah Pek

I went to Seoul for a Korean language immersion trip.

While waiting for the subway, a Korean ah pek came up to me and asked me out. As I could speak Korean, I told him very clearly that I wasn’t interested.

Before I knew it, he had grabbed my phone and saved his number in it. He then used my phone to call his own phone so he could get my number.

Then the train arrived and I thought he would leave since he had gotten what he wanted.

But he followed me in, sat very close to me and even tried to put his arm around me! I freaked out and moved to the next carriage. The uncle followed me, even when I went through several carriages and changed trains twice.

All this while, he pestered me to go out with him - apparently, he was turned on that I was a foreigner. It was an agonising two-hour journey.

Luckily, I managed to give him the slip after getting off the train.

But for the next few weeks, he kept calling and texting me messages with hearts and cutesy sayings. Lim Huiwen, 26, sales manager


WHAT YOU CAN DO

Get help from the people around. If all else fails, report him to the authorities, which in this case would be the train station manager or security.

I was chased by a crime syndicate

When I was in Nanchang, in Jiangxi, China, I spotted a man attempting to steal a woman’s purse.

I don’t know what came over me, but I gave a warning shout. The girl got away safely, but the man and his cronies started following me.

I was terrified upon realising that the man was part of a criminal syndicate. I tried losing them in the crowd but it was useless.

After a long chase, the men cornered me and started shoving me around. They were about to beat me up when a policeman came by. So they let me go with a, ‘Don’t you dare do that again!’

However, they still followed me back to my hotel. I stayed in all evening and left the city the next morning.

Although I wasn’t injured, I still feel traumatised when I think about what happened. Lawrence Lee, 25, unemployed


WHAT YOU CAN DO

Let the hotel security know about the incident so they can inform the police, and also provide you with some form of security from the hotel to the airport or your next destination.

 

[1sickpuppy II]

I was in Hanzhou on 1 of those company posting. The local company guy told me not to open my hotel room door in the middle of the night. In the middle of the night around 11pm someone knocked at my door. Forgetting the locals advice I opened the door and in rushed 2 skimpy dressed SYTs. Seeing me in my undies they had no trouble rapping me and rode me all night long. The next morning to my horror I woke up late and shacked out but the worst was my wallet empty.:o

 

[jw5]

I was in Hanzhou on 1 of those company posting. The local company guy told me not to open my hotel room door in the middle of the night. In the middle of the night around 11pm someone knocked at my door. Forgetting the locals advice I opened the door and in rushed 2 skimpy dressed SYTs. Seeing me in my undies they had no trouble rapping me and rode me all night long. The next morning to my horror I woke up late and shacked out but the worst was my wallet empty.:o

The 3 places that I have been approached by the most scammers are Shenzhen, Shanghai and strangely enough, Paris.
The only place that I have received a free fXXX was in good old SG, from a pair of Jap ladies.

 

[Char_Azn]

The 3 places that I have been approached by the most scammers are Shenzhen, Shanghai and strangely enough, Paris.
The only place that I have received a free fXXX was in good old SG, from a pair of Jap ladies.

Paris is the pickpocket capital of the world as far as I'm concern. Heard enough from my french colleague and seen enough myself to come to that conclusion. Italy is like the petty crime capital of the world, especially Milan. If U are in Milan, be prepared to have a lot of strangers(mostly Africans) approach U and want to be friends by giving U friendship bands and demanded obscene amounts from U. Avoid at all cost. They are all over the place when I visited last Sept.

And all across Europe with exception probably being the German speaking countries, do not leave your bags unattended at all times and by that I mean literally make sure U hold on to your belongings at all times!!! Some asshole managed to steal my bag along with my passport when I was in Milan when I had the bag right in front of me. Some asshole from outside my train(not moving obviously) knock the window from outside, I turned to look, looked back and my bag was gone within 1-2sec of looking away. I learn later that train station were particularly dangerous

Amsterdam, colleague walking with his friend. Stopped to take a smoke so one of them place his laptop bag on the floor. He felt a tap on the shoulder, turned to see some guy running off, turned back and saw another guy running off with his bag.

Another story told to me by a South African couple I met in Prague was they were standing by the side of the road to look at the map. The wife placed her bag on the floor between her legs to while looking at the map. 2-3min later when they were about to leave, she found that the bag now between her leg is an old bag stuff with old newspapers!!!

Another incident, this time in Shanghai when I was dragging my luggage to the taxi, the cab driver immediately ran behind me. Apparently some suspicious guy was following from behind and once he saw the driver standing behind me, he ran off. I had a good lesson of what not to do when in Shanghai for the entire duration of the trip

The latest incident I've heard from my colleague is having dinner in KL, had her laptop bag hanging at the back of her chair and bag was gone after dinner.

I think the problem with us is that SG is too safe compared to most other countries and we ended up not knowing how to protect ourselves. Hell I've seen morons complaining on Stomp about someone moving his bag(which he used to chope seats) onto another table. He should be freaking grateful no one took his bag and ran off. Anyone working in town would also see all kinds of weird and stupid items use to chope seats. I've seen anything from tissue packets to handphones!!! Most ridiculous case was when I saw a woman's purse although the owner was at a stall maybe 2-3 steps away, its still exceedingly stupid to do something like this.

 

[Logisex]

I was in Hanzhou on 1 of those company posting. The local company guy told me not to open my hotel room door in the middle of the night. In the middle of the night around 11pm someone knocked at my door. Forgetting the locals advice I opened the door and in rushed 2 skimpy dressed SYTs. Seeing me in my undies they had no trouble rapping me and rode me all night long. The next morning to my horror I woke up late and shacked out but the worst was my wallet empty.:o

You are lucky to only lose some money. I've heard before that one of my colleague in another office got his company laptop (with confidential info)stolen by the call girl in his Shanghai hotel room.

I wonder how is he going to explain to his boss.......

 

[jw5]

You are lucky to only lose some money. I've heard before that one of my colleague in another office got his company laptop (with confidential info)stolen by the call girl in his Shanghai hotel room.

I wonder how is he going to explain to his boss.......

Maybe the call girl was a spy sent by a competitor.