Laugh and the world laughs with you

I have observed this. Whenever you talk about your foreign trip experiences with others, people tend to think you are proud, that you are trying to show off:) But at the same time if you talk about your stupidity, the way you got screwed up in foreign land, they tend to enjoy it!! Human psyche you know!!… So here I go, sharing some of the good ones …

1. This is the most recent one. I was on a month long official trip to London. August 2006. Remember this was the time when the whole of UK was under threat. Threat of liquid bomb, that is!! Airports all over the country turned into a never ending mess. Amidst this chaos, we were travelling in a tube train towards central London. Don’t know what inspired me but I suddenly asked my friend “is this the same tube which was attacked by serial bomb attacks last year?”. Now we were talking in Gujarati but I forgot to translate the word “Bomb”!! (Not that I knew Gujarati synonym!!). And I tell you, it’s really a difficult time ignoring others staring at you, trying to find similarities between you and Osama-bin-Laden!! lol…

2. Singapore Jun 2005. On my way back home from SanFrancisco, I decided to stay for a couple of days at Singapore. Tired by having to pass through multiple time zones in a short span of time and eagerness to reach home early after almost 6 months, I forgot to buy some Singapore currency at the airport. When I got off the taxi, so innocently I presented the taxi driver with USD bills!! The puzzled face said it all. Here I was caught in the middle of an alien city without having any local currency on me. The driver denied any credit cards so I was left with only option of exchanging USD with him, which he reluctantly accepted. (Thank God!)

3. LasVegas May 2006. We were on a 3 days pleasure trip to Los Angelese – LasVegas. At lasvegas, we were supposed to behave our selves!! The ambiance itself is good enough to “corrupt” you. After having restrained ourselves for a while, we could not stand the basic instinct to try our luck. The other 2 friends grabbed one slot machine and I, in an endeavour to find a better deal (I am made up for something big, slot machines? Huh!!), started roaming around the casino. Whilst I was so engrossed watching the game of poker being played on a table, one lady (looked like an Indian to me) came closer to me and asked what I was doing there? Before I could understand what’s going on, she suddenly asked for my documents. Fortunately I was carrying my passport so I showed her that. After observing it carefully, she gave it back to me with a smile and said, “by law people younger than 18 are not allowed in Casinos!!”… Lo karlo bat…. To her I looked like a teenager!! Was that a compliment or something else… not sure :)

Keep smiling...Laters…