Travel Tales
 |
| In many places, hospitality is still an ethic, not an industry. |
Every month we feature funny, cautionary, or inspiring anecdotes from travelers. If you have a true (short) travel tale to share, send it to stories@ricksteves.com. If you have a photo that illustrates it, please attach it. And don't forget to tell us your first name and the city where you live. We'd love to hear from you!
Lucky to be Unlucky in Turkey
Upon arriving in Bodrum, Turkey from a cruise, my friend and I rented a cheap car. We planned to take a quick overnight loop to Lake Bafu, and take in the ancient sites at Didyma, Miletos and Priene before flying back to Istanbul.
An hour out of Bodrum, our cheap rental car coughs to a stop and refuses to start. I'm thinking, "This is going to be that travel horror story: They couldn't speak the language, got ripped off for repairs, and were left out in the cold by the rental company."
I flag down a passing truck, and he drops me off at the next gas station. First, I'm given tea by the owner, who calls for a mechanic. Everyone is aghast that I'd been given a problem car, which is picked up and towed to the mechanic's cinderblock garage (complete with a hole in the ground instead of lift). We're given more tea, of course. It's the generator, the mechanic announces in Turkish. More calls are made. People who know people who are contacted. They vouch for payment, and eventually we are riding along to a parts distributer in the next town. There we are given another round of tea, and a replacement generator appears. We return and are even treated to lunch while the work is being done. Two hours later, we are on our way. No cash required.
On our way back to Bodrum the next day, we thought we'd drop off some sweets for our new mechanic friend. As we pulled up, he came running out of his garage to give us big bear hugs along, with an invitation for more tea. We got the same response from the gas station owner, whose heart was touched not by the sweets, but that we had returned to say thank you.
What we thought would be "that travel horror story" turned out to be one of our best — and most often retold — travel memories.
— Mitchell in San Francisco, CA
Fine print: We reserve the right to edit and post all Travel Tales submissions. Please provide us with your full name and city/state. We will not print your last name or email address in Travel News.