Trouble in paradise?

Many of you have travled to far away exotic places in search of relaxing beaches.

Most of the tropical world isn't like our visons of paradise however.

The small of diesel fuel isn't the same as sandalwood, and towns full of agresive beggars with nothing to loose are truly shocking when all you wanted was to relax and not worry...

Have you ever taken a tropical venture and had it turn into a nightmare?

Do tell

Reef cuts,that turn in to tropical ulcers and then Staph infections on top, oh and then there was severe dehydration and being bitten by a poisonous centipede. Sun Burn, a Cook Island Tatoo (the local name for a burn from the exhaust pipe of a motor bike), food poisoning and of course mosquito bites.
Ridiculous Fines from police for doing nothing wrong, fines from churches for not attending services( I used to pay a month in advance).
The worst thing though is tourists who complain about stupid things, like not being supplied with a towell when staying in an basic open Fale on a beach, or the food being different to home. Not respecting the ways of other cultures. One time a group of foreign surfers in Samoa refused to accept that they couldn't surf on a Sunday when the conditions were good. The village chief ruled that if they went out no one else would be alowed to surf in that village again, ever! But what did they care, they were going home in acouple of days, eventually they had to be phisically stopped and were sent off the island.
Can't think of any more at this point but I would go back in a heartbeat.

http://www.cheekytiki.com

[ Edited by: cheekytiki on 2005-04-28 01:27 ]

Cook Island Tatoo, that's great.

Other tourists can be a trip. You just don't want anyone to think you're like them.

Rules abouot things which we don't recognize can be wierd. (Like 36.00 cocktails in Islamic countires)

It's funny being an outsider where things like Sunscreen which the locals might not need, costs $30.00

Local laws and rules that make it almost impossible to get on the beach, $10.00 Pepsi, watered down in a leaky paper cup, stepped on a chunk of glass thats still embeded in my heel, locals yelling and totally harrassing you, flies and bugs, trash and that slight ever-persent smell of sewage.
Thats the LAST TIME I GO TO MALIBU!

...paddling out, having the beach to yourself, admiring the beauty and the sounds of nature, sitting on the oustside of the break waiting for the next set to roll in...

...only to be disrupted by the sounds and smell of a wave runner.

GGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!