 |
|
||
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
   | 
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Travel talk: have your say
 RELATED
Travel always provides a wealth of experiences. Have you ever had an interesting, crazy, amazing or bizarre incident whilst overseas on business? We want to hear about what you've been upto. Have your say with CNN. If you cannot see your comments on this page, please check out our archives. As a seasoned traveler, there are two extremely annoying problems: firstly there are airline ticketing staff who arbitrarily charge for excess luggage, at a differing rates than that of employees. Each airline also charges at different rates; Qantas, American Airlines and British Airlines are the biggest culprits. The other problem is Customs officers who misrepresent their countries laws in the hope the traveler will bribe them, in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore. The two groups mentioned, clearly enjoy the power they have over travelers. They do not assist in promoting the image of their respective employers and country. Bob Szatmary, Gold Coast, Queensland Australia I have had many experiences during my travels worldwide. The worst of them involved being detained in a Saudi Arabian airport for 12 hours because my Visa was not stamped by the consulate in London. I had a valid visa but the officer in the consulate somehow forgot to stamp it. The next day I was sent back to London on the first available flight. Ala'a Masoud, Amman, Jordan People traveling to the United States should remember the 15 percent tip they are supposed to pay in restaurants is not really voluntary. Because of a system called "tip-out", most of the time the waiters pay the restaurant to work there (five percent of their total sales), so if nobody tips they literally leave the restaurant with less money than they came in with! Peter, Brussels, Belgium On a recent 15-segment Europe/Asia tour on one of the airline alliance planes my e-ticket was changed to a paper ticket but both reservations still appeared in the main airline's reservation system. When cancelling the e-ticket, the airline managed to cancel most of my paper reservations too including the connection on the first flight. Since I had a paper ticket and Lufthansa had space, they allowed me to board and my agent spent two hours with the original airline getting my bookings back. Without a paper ticket and agent, I would have been way out of luck! Ron LaPedis, San Francisco, California Years ago on a flight from Karachi to Peshawar in Pakistan, a friend of mine traveling with me was carrying a bouquet of flowers she intended to give to the lady managing our office at the destination city. We both fell asleep during the trip and when she woke up she was holding nothing but the flower stems. As she looked around -- surprised -- she realized what had happened. The fellow passenger traveling next to her was carrying a small goat in a basket. The goat must have rated the flowers top class, although we could not say the same for the food we got. Antonio Varela, Gif-sur-Yvette, France Airlines food is mostly unacceptable, except when one travels in business or first class even in these classes it is not that attractive either. Linda, Taipei, Taiwan I wonder what corruption the Nigerian Government is fighting, when the Nigerian Police still 'steal' from the general public, Smuggling still 'flows' in the Katsina border town to Niger Republic. Except for some officials, many are corrupt and dubious, especially the majority of lawmakers. Dare Olu, Lagos, Nigeria While in Granada, Spain, I asked a number of people where I could find a nightclub, and got shrugs and weird looks, even from a priest and a little old lady. I finally asked a police officer and he laughed, asking if I had gotten a lot of weird looks in my quest. He explained that "nightclub" was their term for brothel! D.J. Lawrence, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada I hope Beijing gets its act together before 2008. Landing there, one is assaulted by the most disorganized airport I have ever known. We waited at immigration for hours while people battled in lines five wide to get out. Once outside the airport, the taxi and hotel touts descended on us like vultures and we were left wondering how this city will ever cope with thousands of Olympic tourists! Michael Perth, Western Australia, Australia I often fly to China and have found that some of the best meals are usually in some of the "hole in the wall" establishments away from the crowds of Shanghai and Hong Kong. The staff are often very curious about westerners since most stick to the hotels or chains. Generally the hole in the walls will go above and beyond your expectations and provide you with excellent service and flavor. Rusty DeBlassie, Weatherford, Texas 
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| © 2007 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map. |
|
Pay service with live and archived video. 
