One time in the early 1970s, I was on a full bus heading from Minnesota to visit my cousin in South Dakota. This was back in the dark days of travel before there were many (if any) rest areas, gas stations at every major intersection, and chain restaurants galore. I was sitting up near the driver chatting with him. He was a cool guy and was telling me all sorts of stories.

We were approaching the border between the two states and he got on the PA.

Driver: “Welcome to South Dakota! Enjoy the wide-open views.”

Everyone who had kind of been dozing stirred and looked out the windows.

Right then, we passed a car on the side of the road, and out in front of it was some poor woman crouched down relieving herself. I can still remember the shocked expression on her face as this busload of people whizzed by and the laughter of the bus passengers getting their first glimpse of the… wonders of South Dakota.

In my twenties, I went on a low-key backpacking trip around New Zealand. At the time, there was a serial killer in Australia killing hitchhikers — the incidents were literally known as the backpacker murders — but New Zealand is a quieter and safer place, so I really felt comfortable doing this on my own. I was staying at busy hostels and travelling on popular bus routes and scheduled trains. There was very little risk of anything going wrong, and it was probably safer than my commute. But as a solo woman traveller, I seemed to be remarkable to many people, and I found myself in lots of conversations with people asking what I was doing and expressing concerns for my safety. This was my favourite.

Travelling on the TranzAlpine, a scenic route that runs across the island, I ended up talking to a group of men in their forties and fifties — nice blokes, I think — who at first expressed amazement and real concern that I should be doing something a hazardous as travelling alone. We had a nice chat as the train moved through the countryside, I told them about myself, and I found out about them. They were all commercial fishermen who worked together and were now heading for a week’s holiday, also together, to a hut in the wilderness near a river. They were going to spend the week trout fishing! The ultimate busman’s holiday. 

One of them suddenly had a genius idea: I should come with them to the hut in the wilderness and cook for them! They all agreed that I should abandon my plans of exploring both islands to go into the wilderness and work for them. It would be an adventure!

I do not think they intended me any harm, but it was amazing how quickly they switched from amazement that I was catching a train on my own to amazement that I didn’t want to put myself into the hands of six strange men miles from anywhere.

I work in a restaurant (Harvester, a chain of traditional British family restaurants) on the Surrey/London border, way down in the south of England. My first holiday in about ten years comes up. It’s a musical theatre cruise with a day stop in Cobh, Ireland, hundreds of miles away from home and on another island completely.

I walked into a tiny pub there and a guy stops me and says:

Stranger: “You work in the Bulldog Harvester!”

Totally lost the will to live.

I am on vacation visiting a national park in Hawaii. Among other natural and historical wonders is a beach where sea turtles regularly haul out to rest and sun themselves. You are allowed to get pretty close to the turtles, but there are numerous large signs posted stating that it’s a federal crime to touch, feed, or otherwise harass them since they are an endangered species.

While I am taking photos of the adorable reptiles, a woman and her daughter come over to look at them. While the woman doesn’t immediately do anything to raise alarm, she is talking loudly and being generally obnoxious, so I decide to look at something else for a few minutes and then circle back to the turtles.

When I come back, the woman is being confronted by a rather angry-looking park ranger. Apparently, the lady plopped her daughter on the back of one of the turtles for a photo just as the ranger rounded the corner to the beach.

I didn’t stick around to find out what happened, but I assume the woman was given a fine of an amount in the four- to six-figures variety, if not a court date. The last thing I heard as I walked away was her wailing, “But I thought it was dead!”

I work as a receptionist in a hotel in a small seaside town in Tuscany famous for its beaches and thermal baths. A customer books a reservation for all of August, the busiest tourist month of all the season. The hotel accepts small dogs or animals that can stay in a cage: for example, little birds.

Before the confirmation of the booking, we send an email asking if the customer has animals. They write back saying that they have a meerkat with them, but they assure us that it will stay in the cage when they are at the beach.

The manager decides to accept the reservation, even though it isn’t a typical animal, with the clause that the customer has to pay all the reservation period in advance. The idea is that the customer would never accept such a proposal, but the manager is wrong, and the customer pays everything immediately.

I send an email to the customer with the confirmation of the booking, as well as all the information and phone numbers if they want to reserve the deck chair and umbrella at one of the bathhouses near the hotel. I suggest they do so as soon as possible and, after that, I don’t think any more about the strange reservation.

August comes and the couple with the meerkat arrives with a small cage and the animal on a leash like a small dog. This conversation happens after the check-in.

Me: “Have you booked a bathhouse around here as suggested? I can give you the directions there if you need them.”

Customer’s Husband: “No, why?”

Me: “We are in full season; it is very difficult to find a place now.”

Customer: “We read the email, but we thought that you were too dramatic, so we didn’t do it.”

Me: *Still smiling* “Not a problem. There are some free beaches around here. They are a little crowded, but if you don’t mind, they are very nice. Remember only that your pet has to remain inside the cage, closed, when you are out so that it can’t escape from the room or dirty it.”

Customer: “Don’t worry; we will take the meerkat with us to the beach, and we are sure that we will find a place to stay in a bathhouse near the hotel.”

Me: “Are you sure? I don’t think that any bathhouse will accept the meerkat. It is not a dog, and as written in the mail that I sent you, only two bathhouses accept animals.”

Customer: *Starting to look at me as if I’m dumb* “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing! They will not dare to reject us.”

The next afternoon, the customer’s husband arrives at the reception desk really upset.

Customer’s Husband: “This place is impossible! It’s supposed to be a very famous tourist town! They don’t want tourists! We hate it here and we want to leave tomorrow!”

Me: “I’m so sorry. How can help you to change your mind?”

Customer’s Husband: *Even more upset* “We walked all the morning to find a place in a bathhouse, but they were all full or they don’t accept pets! And wherever we went, all the other tourists wanted to take selfies or photos with our meerkat, and all the small kids wanted to pet it, calling it Timon!”

Me: *Trying to remain serious* “I’m so sorry, but I think that seeing a meerkat is something that doesn’t happen every day, and as I told you yesterday and I wrote in the email that I sent you at the moment of the reservation, we are in full season—”

Customer’s Husband: “I don’t care! My wife thinks that everyone is so rude in this place!”

Me: “I’m really sorry. The only thing that I can suggest for you is that your pet remains in your room inside the cage while you enjoy the sea. I can try to find a place at the bathhouse in front of us with a special discount for the inconvenience.”

Customer’s Husband: *Even more upset* “My wife would never put her beloved pet in a cage; how dare you even suggest it?! I will talk to your manager, and we want to leave tomorrow with a full refund!”

He went away, muttering about the rudeness of everyone. I called the manager and told him all about the conversation, and he assured me not to worry and that he had the situation under control.

The next day, I asked the manager about it.

The couple decided to leave, even though the manager refused to give them a refund because they had been well advised by email about the need to reserve a bathhouse before their arrival, and it is not the fault of the hotel if people wanted to take photos of their pet.

While they were discussing that, the customers left the door of their room open and the meerkat was (obviously) not in the cage. The pet went missing and the wife started to scream and cry trying to find the animal. All of the hotel’s staff started to look for the meerkat everywhere, even outside the hotel. My manager instead decided to enter the room, and there the poor meerkat was – terrified by all that noise – simply hiding under the bed.

When the wife saw the manager with her missing pet, she started to hug him and thanked him, calling him her savior and superhero.

After they left, my manager’s new rule became: “No meerkats allowed!” but all the staff started to call him the savior of meerkats!