balderdash111

I thought it might be educational and entertaining to share stories about the stupidest things you've done while traveling.

Please try to include a general lesson from your mishap.

Here's my story:

I was traveling in South Korea with my father. He and I spent a few days in Seoul - he was in business meetings during the day, and I schlepped around the city by myself.

After a few days, he went to China and I stayed in Korea by myself. I decided to take a bus to a city in the south called Kyong-Ju, which is full of old ruins and near a very large active temple (Hain-Sa, for the curious). I don't speak Korean. At all.

Surprisingly, taking a bus by myself to a strange city not known for tourism in a country where I don't speak the language was NOT the dumbest thing I did while traveling. It turned out to be great...

except....

Hain-Sa (the temple) is a few miles out of the city, so, rather than try to take a bus, I decided to walk it. I bought a 2 liter bottle of water for the trip.

This was also not the dumbest thing I did while traveling.

This was:

On the way to Hain-Sa, I came upon a small mountain, which according to my guidebook had some very old buddhist carvings at the top. It didn't look very big, so I decided to hike up since I was there anyway. It was a pretty well-traveled path, with lots of groups going up the mountain along with me.

It wasn't a hard climb, but I did start to get concerned about my water supply. About halfway up, there was a natural spring coming out the mountain. Most of the Koreans who walked past the spring stopped to take a couple of big drinks. There were plastic cups floating in a small pool that people were using.

So, I drank.

Not a good idea.

I made it up and down the mountain and over to Hain-Sa without any trouble. Also got all the way back to town with no ill effects. Got dinner and went to bed, feeling fine, if a little tired.

The next morning, however, was not good. Diarrhea like crazy, slight fever, the works. And lets not forget that this was a small city, with no drug stores (at least not like what you see in the bigger, more westernized cities), and which uses a language I didn't speak.

It was a long day, in which I didn't leave my hostel room very much.

The lesson: even if it comes straight out of the ground, don't drink the water in a strange country.

If you're curious how it came out, I eventually managed to get out of the hostel to wander the streets looking for something resembling a drug store (avoiding at all costs the place where I had dinner - the smell of which made me very nauseous). I was unable to find one, but finally sucked up the courage to approach a man on the street and try to explain my problem through sign language. He was very nice, seemed to understand and took me to a local pharmacists who gave me a powder to mix with some tea. The next day I felt well enough to move on to another city, though I was considerably weakened for the next few days.