Misadventures With The Wrong Language Group, Wrong Coach, Wrong Taxi

Flag of France from Wikipedia.

Problem
Have you ever lost your tour group or had trouble finding your coach or taxi in a car park during a travel trip?

Story of My Misadventure
I once joined an English speaking group on a guided tour of a stately home in France - and I stopped to take a photo. We had joined the English tour group of the stately home. I did not know the guide or the other people on the guided tour, and neither the guide nor the other guests knew me.

 I was with a group who had an English speaking guide - easy, ok?

I saw a group at the end of the gallery and ran up. From the back of the crowd I worked my way forward. When I could hear, I realised the guide was speaking German!

 Okay, so maybe we had some Germans in our group. Eventually I asked him if he could repeat his story in English. He told me, "You are with the wrong group. This is a German group."

I tried three different group before I found the English group.


If only they had carried flags!

That's one story of my French misadventure. It was not my only misadventure. Call me Miss Adventure.
Flags are very handy.

Learn A Language
On the other hand, if I had learned to speak German fluently, I could have stayed with the German speaking group. But then I would have my husband, got back to the car park at the wrong time and boarded the wrong coach.

You also need flags on coaches. Several time I have been on a tour and the guide has told us to remember our coach number plate. Trying to remember a coach number plate is much harder than recognizing a flag.

Identifying A Taxi In India
As for a taxi, I once remembered the ending of a taxi number plate in India. When I emerged from the museum, which had four exits and four car parks, I discovered that all taxis had number plates ending with the same two digits or letters.

If only I had brought with a little Union Jack and Blutac to stick it on the front windscreen. It is easy enough to take a picture or flag from a magazine or newspaper or free map and keep it in your handbag or travel bag to add to your suitcase or taxi windscreen.

Useful Websites
For a free learn online language website for French, German and English from other languages, try:
duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Some Travel Statistics - how are tourists counted, and recognized?

Problem
I've just read that Europe is the world's top travel destination. But how are they counting that? By flights, hotel rooms booked, people employed, numbers of hotels and restaurants, money generated, restaurant meals, museum and attractions entrance fees?

Who says? A European.

These statistics are being collected all the time. We are being counted. Advertisers want to know how many people will see an advertisement on a railway station, by a bus stop, overlooking a motorway junction or the city center.

London, England

AMERICA
When we lived in America we travelled constantly, every weekend. We drove in a car. Our car's numberplate identified where we were from. When we spoke, our accent identified us as English.

You can also be identified by your clothes.

Story
Year's ago I was with my parents, who lived in London, on holiday in Marbella, Spain. As we walked around the shops, my father would say of a nearby or passing couple, "They're British!"

I asked, "How do you know? Did you hear them speak?"

"No," replied my father. "They were wearing national health spectacles." (My father was an opthalmic optician.)

The inter-city railways need to know how many return tickets they have sold to calculate the numbers of trains and coaches in each direction, the numbers of replacement buses when there is an accident or breakdown, the numbers of train drivers, ticket inspectors, cleaners, snack sellers with trolleys, dining cars, the demand for overnight couchettes (sleeping bunks).

Analysing Statistics
When numbers don't tally, they look for a reason. How many people going through turnstiles went the wrong way because they were lost, jumped over the barrier, used a free staff pass?

Some were employees on their way to their job. Did any use a stolen card or re-use a card? How many expected travellers were missing because they missed the last train?

Safety
Did somebody jump off the platform? Only one - but maybe several each year), and that caused hundreds of commuters to abort their journeys.  missed their connection, fell off a train or cruise ship, went into hospital, came down with seasonal flu, got drunk?

Maybe some overslept, or stayed the night in the city with family or at a hotel?

Successful Marketing
Reduced prices attract travellers and tourists. Those in the travel trade are watching us travelling. We, in turn, are watching them, watching us.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

FRIDAY 13th ! Unlucky or lucky for travellers?

4 8 12a 12b 13 888

Problem
Will I find flights cheaper on Friday and on the 13th and should I postpone travel - or seek out bargains?

I have a friend who was born on the thirteenth of the month and he says that for his parents and him it was a lucky day, a day of celebration.

Lucky dates vary around the world. The Chinese are very superstitious and when we tried to sell a motorbike in Singapore the first question we were asked was, "What's the number on the number plate?" They wanted the Chinese lucky number 8, and to avoid the unlucky number 4 which sounds like death. I've heard of people in China swapping the numbers on houses.

Many hotels don't have a room 13. They rename it 12b and 12 is renamed 12a. The same goes for floors in a hotel. If you want to know whether your hotel or apartment block or office has a floor 13, just check the buttons in the lift (Americans say elevator).

it 13 really an unlucky day? I read a book about superstition. The author looked at hospital records and found that admissions and deaths were no greater on the 12th and 14th of a month than on the 13th.

An analysis of flights shows a slight dip in the numbers flying on the 13th. However, this is not universal.You won't find your British Airways flight invariably less. If you want to find flights reduced, it's the same as any other day of the year, you have to be flexible about your destination and airline and see what's good value that day.

 There are 52 Tuesdays in a year, at least one and maximum three Friday thirteenths.  Other countries regard Tuesday as unlucky, or the number 17 (eg Italy). Should you wish to read more of this nonsense, please go to Wikipedia.

If you are superstitious, think how many Friday the 13th's you have survived. Aren't you lucky!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/are-flights-really-cheaper-on-friday-the-13th/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Lost Taxi Tour in India

Lost Taxi
   I get in a taxi in India. Return trip to multi-storey shopping centre. I have memorised the last three digits of the taxi numberplate.
  I arrive back on ground floor where guide is supposed to wait. He's not there. I go into get help from information desk. Do I have name of hotel? Yes. But line is engaged. eventually get though to hotel. What's the name of driver and number of taxi? All drivers and guides are Mohammed or Patel. All taxis in the city end with the same three digits. The shopping centre has four exits, NSEW.
 I run round each one and round each car park. At the fourth, now ten minutes late - has he driven off already? The taxi drivers, all have moustaches and dark clothing, at least ten look like clones of mine.  They probably are his brothers or relatives. I am stressed. Luckily just as I run back in, I hear a shout. It's my taxi driver.  I could kiss him. I am so happy.

Solution
  After all this I am now careful I would photograph the driver, guide, taxi number, and email them straight back to people in another country, with the name of the hotel in view and the hotel guard or receptionist. I would have the phone number of my hotel, my companions my tour bus company, my guide's mobile phone. The taxi identifying call number.

I would have a map showing the route and all scheduled stops and get the hotel receptionist to get this agreed with the guide and driver, including the timing of each section of the journey and the length of each stop.