What happens when everything goes catastrophically wrong while traveling abroad? You get the best stories of your life.

In this episode, I sit down with Jenna Farber, a travel industry professional who represents luxury safari operators across Africa, but whose real education in travel came from years of beautifully messy cultural exchange programs in Latin America. From living with host families in the Dominican Republic and Ecuador to navigating language barriers that led to truly catastrophic miscommunications, Jenna shares the kind of vulnerable, hilarious travel disasters that most people are too embarrassed to talk about.

If you've ever been too afraid to share your embarrassing travel stories, or if you've been playing it safe because you're terrified of looking stupid abroad, this episode is your permission slip to embrace the chaos and laugh at yourself. Because the truth is, your most mortifying moments are often the ones that shape you most as a traveler and give you the best dinner party stories for the rest of your life.

Links & Resources (Jenna)

1. Find Jenna on Instagram
2. Find Jenna on Facebook

Links & Resources (Laura)

1. Follow my personal IG: @lolawhiskey
2. Follow my business IG: @lauraericsongrouptrips
3. Follow our podcast: @type2travelpodcast
4. Learn more about upcoming trips: lauraericson.com
5. Check out our podcast page: lauraericson.com/podcast
6. Join my Facebook group: @lolalovestravel

Thanks for being here! As always, rate, review, share with a friend, and tag us if you're listening.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to type two travel. I'm your host Laura Erickson. Today I'm sitting down with Jenna Farber and this conversation is exactly why I started this podcast in the first place. Like anything travel comes with the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright humiliating. And today we're here to spill all the tea. Denver on an overlanding trip through Boulder, Colorado.

You know those moments when you meet someone and within about two minutes you're like, thank god, a real person. That's Jenna. While everyone else was politely networking and keeping it professional, Jenna and I were immediately swapping travel horror stories and laughing about all the things that can definitely will go catastrophically wrong when you're exploring the world.

What I love about Jenna is that she works in business development for luxury safari operators destination management companies across Africa, representing some seriously high-end travel experiences. But her real education in travel came from years of beautifully messy, immersive cultural exchange programs in Latin America, families in the Dominican Republic and Ecuador,

Navigating language barriers that led to some truly catastrophic miscommunications and learning the hard way that sometimes the best stories come from your absolute worst moments. Today we're getting real about the stuff most professional travelers won't talk about. The embarrassing disasters, the mortifying mishaps,

The moments where you're absolutely certain you'll never recover socially from what just happened.

several stories that perfectly capture type two travel experiences that are absolute nightmares in the become your most treasured moments later. We're talking about doorless bathrooms abroad, gone horribly wrong, airport security incidents that will give you secondhand embarrassment, and why the moments when everything falls apart are often the ones that shape us the most as travelers.

If you've ever been too afraid to share your embarrassing travel stories or if you've been playing it safe because you're terrified of looking stupid This episode is your permission slip to embrace the chaos and laugh at yourself. So without further ado, let's chat with Jenna.

Hey adventurers, I'm Laura Ericson and this is Type 2 Travel, where the journey might occasionally make you question your life choices, but the stories are always worth it. Just like Type 2 fun, we're diving into those travel experiences that transform us, challenge us, and connect us. So grab your passport and an extra dose of curiosity. Let's get lost together.

Hello Jenna, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to chat with you.

Thanks Laura, excited to be here. Thanks so much for having me.

pumped for this conversation. I think it's gonna be really fun. Before we get into it though, I want to warm you up with some quick travel questions. first question is what's something you always pack now when you travel as a result of something embarrassing that happened abroad?

Let's do it.

Yeah, well definitely. I mean, I know you always hear those stories of

people who pack double the amount of panties that they need for a trip. Not always a bad thing. Definitely have had a situation before where your carry-on luggage gets checked. So it's always good to have ⁓ a spare undie set and maybe change the clothes like in your under the seat in front of you bag. That would definitely be one of them. Definitely always keeping my...

you

Emodium do you guys have a modium there in the seats is it the same one? Yeah, okay, so keeping that a modium close by just in case and They'll get into this a little bit later on but just making sure that things are hidden if you will or Put in the right place when packing those would be my takeaways

yeah. We got it.

put in the right place.

I

know we'll talk about that later, but I have some stories related to that too. Not probably as embarrassing as yours, things like you put something in a carry-on that's going through security versus something that should be in your checked bag, like definitely something to think about. But I feel like I have secondhand embarrassment from the amount of people that I travel with and all the things that have happened to them. And so

I didn't used to be an overpacker, but now I am because I think I've seen so many things with, you know, if I'm traveling with 14 people, I've seen statistically so many things happen within the 14 people that I bring all these things just in case something happens to not only me, but them. And so because of that, I just have so many maybe emergency type things. And one of, I would say some of the weirder ones are like smooth move pills for constipation. I give those out quite a bit.

There's something called smooth move tea, which a lot of people swear by. I don't like to drink tea and I don't want to like have to wait for something as a result of drinking tea. That just doesn't feel convenient when you're traveling. So they now make them in pill form and it's basically a natural laxative pill. I've given those out to people and yes, they do work. On that note, another thing that I have packed as a result of traveling with a lot of nurses is glycerin suppositories because again,

I've seen a lot of people have both ends and both sides of the coin in terms of issues. And if you really, really need to get it out, Glycerin suppository will do it. So I've only had to give those out once or twice and it is very awkward. I think once I had to give it to an older gentleman and that was weird, but yeah, not literally give it to him, but you know what I mean.

Got it.

Literally.

I handed it over.

Yeah, noted,

didn't, you know, you get it. Anyway, I feel like now I've just seen so many things that Half the time I'm in another country and I'm on Amazon ordering it so it's there when I get home because I'm like, my God, never again. Like never again.

Well, you sound like

the kind of group leader that everybody needs and I know you've led a lot of groups in your past. we are, all of us passengers are very thankful for the over prepared person. There always has to be one in a group. So thankfully you're it.

Yeah, I think also my over-preparedness has also taught other travelers to be more prepared. And so I've seen a lot of people who travel with me regularly, they come on another trip and then next time, like, they have some of the things that I come with or they have, their own little emergency medical kit or they have, all the pills and things. And so I'm like, yes, thank, thank God I'm not the only one, because it also is hard to supply a modium for 14 people, especially if I have multiple tours. And I would say one more thing on this is Z-Pax.

Everybody for... yeah.

it's a antibiotic that can be used for But I always tell my travelers to bring a Z-Pak to get one from their doctor. I'm assuming in Canada you have to have it by prescription, but maybe not. Who knows? You guys have obviously much better health care than we do. ⁓ Very different in lots of ways. That's another episode. But anyway, a Z-Pak will potentially save your trip. I just had to give...

Hmm.

Very different, very different.

two of them out on my last Cuba trip to two different people who are really not feeling well. And I think it probably made a difference in this person, being sick the entire trip and just feeling like hot garbage. And I would say within 12 hours she was feeling better. So definitely bring a Z-Pak. And if you don't need it, you just carry it around with you and bring it home. worst case, someday you throw it away if you don't need it anymore. But. ⁓

The golden rule,

if you need it, you won't have it, and if you have it, you won't need it.

Correct. Correct.

And this is why I travel with way too much shit now.

yet a couple checked luggages. Maybe not quite, but.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, sometimes if it's a long trip, I have two checked bags. My trip coming up that's almost eight weeks long, it's four or five countries, I will have two checked bags because I it's a lot of clothing. It's a lot of different things I need. I have all the stuff I need for my groups, know, ⁓

Yeah, that makes sense, though.

Mm-mm.

donations and all kinds of stuff that I'm bringing so it is stressful to pack for that long and not be able to go home and switch out your bag and and you have to plan for doing laundry and yeah you just can't have enough clothes for eight weeks

Yeah, so

that's one of the exceptions then I guess for packing doubly under my earth that you would need. there are always, you know, different circumstances for that.

Yeah, laundry.

I wash a lot of stuff in the sink when I travel. Yeah. ⁓

in the sink. Yep. The fast dry underwear,

huge, huge game changer. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, even bathing suits.

Faster anything because some stuff takes a really long time

and sometimes you don't have time. You don't have two days to wait for your clothes to dry of naturally clothesline you need it, fairly quickly So I do try to pack things that obviously pack down small and dry quickly and also I'm amazed sometimes when I wash things in my sink leggings and even like ⁓ Long shirt that I wear how dirty they get

water comes out you have to just keep doing it until the water comes out a little clean. Yeah.

Brown water, yeah, it's

alarming. And I'm like, is this what my clothes look like at home? is this a travel thing? I'm picturing like pig pen with that ball of dirt around him. that's what I feel like. But yeah, I think when you're on safari or you're in India or you're in the Sahara desert, your clothes collect dirt, trust me.

Nah,

The aura,

But yeah, it is weird when you're like, I would have worn this again. It had no idea how much dirt I was wearing. It's disgusting.

Granted.

Okay, moving on. What's a word or phrase in Spanish that you'll never get wrong again after miscommunication?

This one was, you speak Spanish so at least I can get your proper pronunciation on it because I'm bound to screw this up again because you'd think I would learn. The biggest one for me has been like to bake and to urinate. So like hornear and orinar.

Ornear? Like to bake with it with... yurinar?

Yeah, to be and to urinate.

Yuri now, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, and

if you spell them out, you would see a very different, obviously, sounds the same.

you're very different when you spell it. Yeah. Yeah, very different when you

spell it sounds the same especially as a first time person learning Spanish That one wasn't related to any of the stories I'm going to talk about today But you know we can leave that up for maybe a future story We'll see but that was an interesting one because obviously ⁓ to bake something and to urinate have very different outcomes very different adjectives, so

You

different locations as

well.

different locations, hopefully.

⁓ What's the weirdest food you've encountered while traveling and did you actually end up eating it?

I mean there's there's been a few some of them aren't necessarily weird well none of them are weird for the the people living in said country but for me as a traveler and a guest to that country that destination I'd say probably one of the weirdest ones that I came across was the belief in the Philippines are you familiar with that I think it's like BULET

Elite. No, I'm Googling.

in the Philippines. So it's basically ⁓ an egg but it's with the embryo inside of it still. Like half developed.

Mmm.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Say less. yeah, okay, yep. Bullet, bullet egg. Fertilized, ⁓ okay. Fertilized duck embryo. ⁓ and you can literally see like a baby.

Yeah, and they sell them...

Belites is pronounced, but yeah.

Yeah

you can and there's like the little crunch of the... That's all I'm gonna say. I did my best. I won't go into details with how that experience turned out because I know that it is a cultural delicacy there and people do eat it so it just wasn't for Either fully unfertilized or fully developed I guess is where I would go.

Ugh.

Oof.

fair.

No,

not not over medium. my goodness. Okay, I think you might next question. If you could go back and warn your younger self about one thing before she traveled internationally, what would it be?

No in between.

I'd say just, I mean this.

This is a tough one. Probably just to be yourself. I know that that's probably a common thing that people say all the time. But just try to let go of those inhibitions and the things that you carry from back home that might impede your decisions, just to be open and say yes to opportunity. But also on the same hand, to just be very aware of the cultural norms and regulations within a country so as not to get yourself

into trouble or do things that are inappropriate or go over very well in a country and just to respect that.

Yeah, those are really good tips. I feel like I would have this long laundry list to give to self, but I think my biggest one would be to...

not be afraid to go places that aren't as known or popular or mainstream or similar to my own culture. Because when I think back this is very common, with American travelers, is we kind of start with Mexico and you obviously Canada. Canada like really counts for us because you know it's too similar. ⁓

Mm-hmm.

It's two same

same, yeah.

Yeah, like you're leaving the country, but it feels like a little bit of a cheat. you know, we start with Mexico and then, you know, maybe we dabble a little bit in Central America or Costa Rica. Puerto Rico. Yes. ⁓ And I would say, yes, I would say everyone's.

Australia and New Zealand are similar in culture and language.

bucket lists. Again, these are generalizations, but they start with Europe and, you know, everyone has this dream of going to Europe and even Europe, know, within Europe you can find...

very different and you can find very similar and I think we generally speaking tend on the side of similar to our own culture and we pick those countries because they're different but similar enough that we don't feel uncomfortable, it feels familiar enough and I just feel like I did that too. I slowly made my way.

I would say that threshold was for me officially crossed with Turkey then it was Morocco and India and Georgia and on and on but feel like Turkey was probably the first time it was like a and just very different

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

and different isn't bad. Not that I thought that different was bad previously, but I just didn't, it didn't appeal to me.

But getting out of your comfort zone though, it's huge.

Yeah,

huh.

think it just it wasn't that I was scared or anything like that. I worked in ESL. I worked with international students. That wasn't it. It was that it didn't appeal to me as much to go to countries that were when I look at it now, it's like those were countries that were just very different and more extreme and more uncomfortable. And I definitely tended to stay with the easier, more familiar, more Western cultures. So I'm glad I got there eventually, but I

Mm-hmm.

wish I would have done that sooner. ⁓

There's

definitely something scary about the unfamiliar. So I think that that's something we learn as we grow through different experiences, whether they be like similar things we're going to talk about today or however that is for a person. But it's definitely more comfortable, especially for your first time abroad, to try to stick to more known cultures and identities, you will, languages for sure.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think that's okay, you know, when someone's taking their first international trip, I'm not suggesting like, hey, you're leaving, the the first time at age 40, let's just jump right into Morocco. I mean, you could, and nothing horrible is gonna happen to you, but you wanna dip your toe in the pool? maybe start with Mexico or go to Europe and then start, dipping your toe deeper, deeper, deeper, but

I think people just need to be open and interested and curious and not afraid.

Agreed.

Okay, let's set the stage for our conversation, which is going to be a series of embarrassing travel stories, which I think we all have. So let's start with you and what you do professionally, because I think it creates an interesting contrast to the stories we're about to hear. So you represent luxury safari operators and DMCs across Africa. Can you paint a picture of what that looks like for you?

You

Yeah, and I failed to include before that it is actually across Asia, Europe, and the Americas now.

That has been very different from a lot of these stories that I'm going to discuss today or talk about with you today are from my backpacking days from when I was a little bit younger, let's say 10 years ago, et cetera. So kind of learning, my way, navigating my way through countries and through different awkward or vulnerable situations. And so the things that I'm doing now for work are we're working with them different.

destination management companies, tour operators and lodges across, well, now a large part of the world.

And all very different style of travel in terms of everything's kind of set up for you. We're working with people that have been in the industry for like 30, 40 years running these trips. So they really know what they're doing. They're the experts on ground. So it's very different.

in terms of the things that I'm going to talk about when it was just me in my backpack and a Google Translate app once those finally became available. But yeah, so I've been working with the company that I am with, for almost eight years now. So I've gotten to see a whole other area of the world from a completely different perspective, a great perspective. ⁓

that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to before or didn't have the opportunity to do before. And they're amazing people in amazing countries. And honestly, I don't know if I would have gone to some of these other destinations had I not had the opportunity through this job. And now they're some of my favorite continents in the world. So ⁓ I'm very grateful for the opportunity.

Mm-hmm.

I think to your point too, it's so worth it to take a risk and go to a place that maybe wasn't on your list.

I've just never had that steer me in the wrong direction. And when I offer destinations that maybe aren't on everyone's top five or ten bucket always so impressed by people who say, this was never a place that I wanted to go, but I saw you go there and it looked really cool and I'm open-minded and so was like, hey, why not? If Laura says it's cool, I'll go. I always think that's...

Mm-hmm.

so cool that people are willing to do that because I just think some of the best places I've ever been have been the places that maybe weren't on my radar and an opportunity popped up so I went. So I think it's awesome that you've gotten to see so many different places as a result of your job.

And I just think when the universe gives you a nudge to go somewhere or do something different that maybe is like, well, I wanted to go to Paris, but I guess I'm going here instead. do it. See where it takes you. It'll lead you down a totally different path.

I mean.

and I'm kind of the opposite in that in the sense that I haven't even really traveled much in Europe. I haven't been to Paris, I haven't been to Italy, so I've been to all of these other kind of obscure places, so I've had a slightly different path in that sense just through my own choosing and also just through where life's led me, but those are the places that I want to go when I have the money to spend on nice hotels and eat good food and drink really good wine instead of staying in a hostel for...

Mm-hmm.

Mm hmm. Yeah.

$30 with eight other people because I think I'm done with hostels now. think I will with the good ones, you know that might have a private room, but Especially after this job definitely gotten spoiled I'm 33

yeah.

And how old are you Jenna?

33, yeah, 42 and I don't know at what age, I would late sometime in my 30s, but definitely now I am like, it's worth paying the money to.

not be uncomfortable for the most part, I would say. You know, I'm not a luxury traveler for the most part. I don't need the nicest of the nice. I don't generally fly business class unless it makes financial sense. I don't need, the best of the best by any means, but I also do not need to rough it unless roughing it. The exception is if roughing it is part of the experience, then I will do it.

Totally.

Mm-hmm.

That's what I

was about to say because I mean we also, we do represent different companies that are...

Destinations because we actually work for some boards as well. So like not just Luxury companies where they definitely wouldn't be considered a luxury destination, but the luxury comes in different ways So I think that with that word I'm always kind of conscientious about the way that I use it to describe things because luxury to me could just mean Being in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the bush and a basic amenities accommodation and that's my luxury

Mm-hmm.

I'm fine with that. I just happen to have gotten into this this Avenue this this life that I have an opportunity for more of the other side too But when it comes down to it, I mean, get me a spot at the end of it if that's what the trip calls for but during it if I'm out in nature and just surrounded by good people and good food and the experience like you said is part of that

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

lack of luxurious amenity, if you will.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and sometimes that is part of the experience and staying in watered down version, you know nicer but more watered down isn't always the best experience like

I just had a podcast air last week with my photographer in Kenya and he talked about how, overlanding is the experience and that if you upgrade your accommodations and don't participate in the overlanding, and that doesn't mean you can't stay in a nicer lodge or something. But if you're missing out on the camping, the campfires, the cooking with our chefs, the moving around in a truck,

Right?

If you're missing that experience, that is a really great opportunity to engage with the locals, to hear their stories, to see how they cook, you're just missing all of that, time you could be spending with them versus staying more removed and maybe more comfortable, but it is sometimes a missed opportunity. So,

I think you said it best, like luxury means different things to different people. And if I had a choice for 10 days in Kenya, I would choose a tent and two groups.

Yeah.

So would One night at the

end, like I said, but.

Yeah, yeah, and that's what I did last

friend and I wrapped it for 10 days in a tent. We had a great time. She was a little anxious about it at the beginning, and then she loved it. We had such a good time tent camping, and at the end, we did decide, okay, one night, let's treat ourselves just because we need to charge our electronics and we need to pack our stuff and we need light. We need to actually see and not be like, we've done enough candlelight packing and...

Wash your undies in the sink.

Okay, fine. We were like, okay, we're good. But when I put this tour out, my Kenya tour, I really struggled with, do I offer this as more of an upgraded quote unquote luxury experience for people who maybe wouldn't want to go at all if it was just tent camping? Or do I offer it as a tent experience because that's what I personally thought was really, really...

Yeah.

impactful and enjoyable. And what I ended up doing was just offering the tent camping and then an upgrade option for people who wanted to do that. And ironically enough, my first group for the most part all chose tent camping and they don't know each other, it's all strangers. And then my second group all chose upgrades. So my first group is tent camping and my second group is upgrading. And so I'll be doing the same and it'll be interesting.

Yeah.

for me to have two trips in a row and kind of experience both and see if I like one better than the other or if I recommend both. It would just be interesting because I haven't done the upgraded version.

So this is in one of your ones coming up in the next couple months here. All right, well we expect feedback on that, Laura.

Yeah, in March.

I will have feedback. I'm sure there will be after a month in Kenya. You know

there's clearly gonna be at least one episode, but yeah, a month in Kenya is gonna have some stories, obviously. Only once, yeah. But these are my first groups. So I did a scouting trip, what, a little over a year ago.

But you've been to Kenya before. Only once. Okay.

and a group from the Netherlands. So I was with the group Strangers. And it was really fun. I absolutely loved Kenya, but it's my only experience Africa outside of Morocco. you know, it's made me very curious about other parts of Africa. And, it was a good gateway into Africa. And now, of course, I think...

Mm-hmm.

maybe people think Africa is just Africa and all these countries are very similar and they're all very very different. They obviously have some commonalities and you can do safari in multiple countries but the animals are different and the experiences are different. The people are obviously very different and their cultures are very different and so in Africa is freaking huge. I'm like flying from

Mm-mm.

people.

Huge. Yep.

Kenya to Morocco or Morocco to Egypt. yeah, it is interesting to me how people generalize these parts of the world. I was just talking about this recently how a couple of years ago I had...

That's like nine hours.

Mm-hmm.

a Morocco tour and people were canceling because of whatever was happening over in the Middle East and they were like, you I don't feel comfortable traveling. And I was like, do you realize on a map how far away that is? it's far. it's further than if something were happening in New York and you said I'm not comfortable going to California. it's further than that.

Way further,

yeah.

It's

further than that and we would never think ⁓ if there's something happening in New York, I'm not going anywhere in California. We would never think that way. So why are we generalizing, these two countries that have really nothing to do with each other and are not in close proximity to each other whatsoever?

Yeah, we see that a lot too with what we do because we talk to lot of advisors, a lot of people in your boots, and you're the people that we're working with directly. So we hear that a lot just when we're talking to see what's happening, see what the perception is for consumers, for travelers, for passengers ⁓ in the US and Canada specifically. So we hear a lot of that. And so I feel like part of our job is to try to break that narrative too. And I feel like you're doing it with all the trips you lead and the destinations you're choosing.

that we are as well with what we're doing because it shows if you go on the ground and you can show them what it's actually like then hopefully over time we can we can start to break away some of these over consuming the media narratives whatever it may be that people get stuck in their heads in and there's so much beauty and so much to experience when you can say yes to those opportunities and look beyond that because these places deserve to be explored.

Mm-hmm.

So thank you for doing what you do as well, Laura.

And you, I think you just put it beautifully. I think the only thing I would add to that too is just that even within a country, there could be parts of a country that maybe aren't, I don't want to say unsafe, but maybe there's known issues in certain regions of a country where there's conflict or, you know, there's...

higher risk to going to and that doesn't make the entire country as a whole unsafe. So they might say like, hey, don't go to this part of, India or Pakistan, but this region is totally fine to go to. I think we need to just be really open-minded and educated. And if you don't know,

Mm-hmm.

ask questions and find somebody who does know because unfortunately Google is not always going to give you accurate up-to-date information and the news for the most part is probably not going to give you accurate up-to-date information. So ask people who've been there, ask people who live there, you know? Sometimes I have to ask, hey, how's it going over there? what are things like right now? Is it safe? are you concerned? has anything changed? And they'll tell you.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, no, 100 % agree. And I think us as travel experts in the industry, that is part of our job. And I think that it's an amazing thing that we're able to do. And hopefully we can start to change just one or two people's opinions or allow them to say yes to the opportunity and then slowly over time. And I mean, like you said, not everywhere is safe. And we know that. But I'm also not willing to put myself in danger, which I'm sure you're not either. So these are things that we're also checking before we've committed.

Mm-hmm. Right. Correct.

Correct. Yeah, obviously, I don't want to put my group in danger, but I would not be knowingly putting myself in danger if I actually thought it was dangerous. So we have to keep that in mind, too. Okay, let's take a very, very sharp turn and get into...

Yeah. Great.

get into a couple

Whoops.

of stories. So for everyone listening, I do not know these stories. I maybe vaguely know what they're about, but I do not know them. So I'm hearing them for the first time. So first one is the one we're calling The Lactative Incident. Set the scene for us. So it's Dominican Republic 2014. What's happening in your life and what brought you there?

Yeah, let's do that. Sure. Yeah.

Okay, so I was going to university at the time and there was a university program and it came up during the summer or spring session, So we could actually get class credits for it. And there was multiple different destinations that were offered, but I chose Dominican Republic. So it was going to be a two and a half month program and I was going to go down with another group of students from the university. So we'd have a mentor, we'd have somebody on the ground, but it was

all participants. And so everybody gets assigned with a host family in different communities. So my host family was in...

the middle of the Dominican Republic. My host family was located right in the smacked up middle of the Dominican Republic. nowhere near beach, we are in the mountains. I was actually working with that community for a reforestation brigade. So every morning we'd get up and go.

plant trees, sometimes we'd have to walk two, two and a half hours, whatever it was, to get to the site. And this is in,

Celsius 35 plus degree weather so by the time you get there you're already drenched in sweat Anyways, that's just kind of setting the scene a little bit. So it was the first week that I was there I didn't have any real practical speaking knowledge of Spanish yet. I was quite good in reading and writing and quite good is Still probably a bit of an exaggeration So the host families that they place you with don't have any English and

it's not a requirement to have any Spanish. So it was my first week there and of course I get my period.

It's one day after work and I'm trying to explain to my mom because she wants us to go out and do something. I can't even remember what the activity was, but to go out as a family and go for dinner somewhere and probably dance because every night we were always dancing. I was trying to explain to her that I had really bad cramps and we were sitting on my bed in my host room there. And...

you

Maybe? Was that alcohol?

It was a red liquid, which they don't really drink wine there, so I'm not entirely sure. With a whole thing of What I later found out was laxatives. So she like pours it in and stirs it and gets me to drink it. And I'm all of a sudden realizing by the end of me drinking it that it was laxatives. So that came later.

You got drunk.

And I was like, okay, this is fine. This is fine. Everything's okay. didn't, well, I found out after she gave it to me and I drank it. I downed it. No, I Googled or was looking up what laxative was. were trying to like get back and forth. It was a long conversation. but I figured it out that whatever the, do you know what the word for laxative in Spanish?

Wait, so you knew it at that time?

So you had downed it and then you basically see the bot you see the bottle of Miralax and you're like

Oh the word. Too late.

no, think like maybe if she's s-

I think it's

very similar. So by the time she finally said that, I'd finished drinking it. And so by the time she said that, I was like, my God, I just drank laxative. So this was our first couple of days with this host family.

I would have said like, Laxativo or something,

⁓ laxante,

laxante, laxante.

There you go.

And we didn't have a bathroom door yet. So I was living with, there was three small children, my host dad and my host mom in this small little house and there was no door to the bathroom yet. They were going to put one up, but we didn't have one yet. So I was feeling okay and it probably, took a couple hours really before I felt it start to turn in the bottom of my stomach.

and I was like, oh no. And I was like, well, this is fine. There's nobody in the house. The house is empty. Everyone's gone. Like it shouldn't be a big issue. Well, all of a sudden, right when it's like, it was like one of those movie scenes, right when it starts to turn in my belly, I hear the entire household come in for dinner and they brought a bunch of friends and there's no bathroom doors.

like bridesmaids.

No, they did not.

Like you can't see directly into it, but I mean for me in my first cultural exchange program, it was enough to be like, what the hell am I gonna do? am I gonna shit my pants in front of everybody? Because the walls aren't full either. There's like a gap, like of a couple meters above all the walls. So even when they're in the kitchen, yeah, even when they're in the kitchen, they can still hear everything. So.

a partition.

I was just kind of pacing in my room and like, what am I going to do? Like I have to live with these people for a couple months still. And I don't know how this is going to turn out. So I'm literally pacing in front of the bathroom door. And then at that time, bless her heart, another girl from the community that was there doing a cultural exchange with me, she walked in to that house at that second to see how I was doing. Cause I didn't come to whatever event everyone was at.

And I told her the situation and and she grabbed a towel and like held it up against the side of the door to the bathroom just so I at least had some privacy while I had my fun experience with the toilet for a good while. So, and it was loud.

my God, I

have so many questions. ⁓ What is the outdoor situation here? Because I would be running outside to a bush.

Oh, they're okay. They're the houses. no, no We were in the middle of a town like in a community, but I this was a couple days in so I didn't really know where to go yet There was just fields outside So I didn't really know where to go that I would feel comfortable with nor did I really know what to was 20 years old. I think at that time then yeah in retrospect I would have just gone and found somewhere like in a bush

Is this urban?

Yeah, in retrospect.

On the bush.

to, to, cause that's, I'm totally fine with that. I'm not a stranger to bushes by any means. But that was just, just a moment when it was like, okay, they're like listening to me shit while they're eating their dinner essentially, And I can't understand a word that they're saying. So I don't know if they're talking about me. And I'm just like, well, this is normal to them. It's normal for them, for somebody to be in the bathroom.

my god.

my God.

I mean, it probably is.

and like hear those noises because you know that many people during the day they only put a door up for me and by the way the door that they ended up putting up was a see-through curtain so that's what I had for the next couple months but honestly it made me feel a little bit better

Hmm.

⁓ my goodness. I have no words.

It's just when you're like one of your first trips abroad to that extent and you have that language barrier issue and you're like, really don't know how to communicate my needs and that's kind of a scary and vulnerable place to be.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that would be enough to get some people to just like go right home like

Some

people probably would have, potentially.

You endured. Did you guys ever talk about it?

No, no, my Spanish didn't really get good enough to to talk about it, I'd say. And I didn't really want to. There was a... Hey, I remember that one time that everybody heard me like...

No. Also,

she knows she gave you a laxative. So, I mean.

I know.

I know. Yeah, I know. There's a lot of question marks on that one, maybe I've blocked out the rest of the details. I just now laugh about it. I actually went back after But I actually went and spoke to a group of students that were going to go do the same cultural exchange through the university.

Oof.

Mm-hmm.

and led

a little bit of a workshop on vulnerability after this experience. because they were getting ready to go on a similar one, whether it be in the Dominican Republic as well or one of the other destinations offered. I just told them that things might happen and they're more used to it than us. It's us that feels culturally weird about that or being like, I don't want to like, you know.

Yeah.

make other people feel uncomfortable with my bodily noises and they're just used to that. So it took a lot to get over that thought process and once I kind of accepted that, that that was normal for them, it was just not normal for me, it felt a lot easier to laugh at myself really.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, and I think it depends obviously where that's happening because there's a spectrum. if you went to Japan, I mean the toilets basically greet you and sing to you and play, lullabies and, rain sounds and their heated seats. I mean, it's a very different experience. So obviously that tells you they have a very different cultural expectation of discretion when using a bathroom.

Yeah.

maybe compared to even like United States.

yeah, I I was in like a 300 person community, in the middle of nowhere Dominican Republic. it was very remote. So everybody knew each other, everybody helped raise each other, everybody very close-knit and just that's how life was.

you

Yeah.

Yeah. I have so many stories of my own, but also, like I said, so many experiences from other people. And I think a few of these I actually have told on this podcast or the people I'm talking about have told these stories. But one of them, if people have heard the story from Carrie, my former sister-in-law, and her and I on our way to Turkey and her shitting her pants in the O'Hare airport.

While I'm sitting in a lounge, she walks in and says she shit her pants and I'm like, excuse me, what? That's early on in my podcast episodes if anyone wants to go back to that one, but it is pretty hilarious. ⁓ Another episode I have with Mel who...

Do it.

shit on the side of the road in a bush in Morocco. Our whole van pulled over so that she didn't shit her pants. So congratulations to her for advocating for her needs. But that is also a very good one. And then one I haven't talked about on the podcast, but and I will not name names, but I had somebody on a boat in Greece. so sailing in Greece, I think people get weird. I think there's a psychological component.

to pooping and when people are traveling with other people and in places that they don't know and like you said, you know, you're in a place you don't know or you have a different roommate or you're staying in a weird accommodation like a boat, people just get a little weird and our bodies get weird. And so I've seen a lot of people get very constipated on boats in Greece. But yeah, I have a lot of Greece stories, but

Mm-hmm.

my gosh.

I wasn't on the boat at the time. We had two boats that sail side by side and I was on the other boat. And one of my friends messaged me and said, you gotta come over here. And I was like, what's going on? And she's like, so and so pooped in somebody else's bathroom. So we have kind of shared bathrooms, but also it's like.

this bathroom belongs to these two cabins and obviously anyone can use any bathroom. They have doors on the outside, but it's kind of known here's our bathroom, here's your bathroom. Yeah, so one bathroom was nicer than the others. It was larger and we're talking about a sailboat, so these are not big bathrooms. So for whatever reason, she decided to go in this other bathroom. I don't know why. I mean, this is not further away or closer than her bathroom. She chose to use it.

They're connected. Yeah. Yeah.

Apparently, toilet won't flush. And so I'm over with our skipper and our guide and I'm like, what do do in that situation? Because my friend's texting me and she's like, Mayday, mayday. So our skipper happy is like, well, Laura, let me tell you, there's three things that can happen. number one is I go over there and I work on the.

Help, help, SOS.

and the toilet flushes. Number two is I go through the floor and I have to do do do do do do you know and like then then I get it. He goes and number three and Laura no skipper ever wants number three. we swim outside the boat with the goggles and the snorkel and we floodgates basically and the shit tank the shit tank comes out so he's like

my gosh.

Stop.

mortifying. Thanks, Ghost.

Yeah.

excuse my horrible Greek accent, but he basically says like, no. Yeah, he's like, no, skipper, everyone's number three. So let's hope, you know. So anyways, Happy goes over there. But before Happy goes over there, apparently she was trying to solve this problem on her own as one does. And I respect that by taking a water bottle and cutting it in half and scooping it out and bringing it over to her toilet.

No, I was actually thinking that that's pretty good.

and to flush it over there. So the girls on the boat are sitting there watching this happen in live time and texting me and I'm just like beside myself, because I'm like, I don't know what to do here. whoa. So apparently she took matters into her own hands, somewhat successfully. So Happy had to go over there. Luckily, it was a number two situation.

Hmm.

What do you say?

some kind of matter.

Literally and figuratively. And so he went through the floorboards and got it fixed. It was not a number three, so he was super excited. He was very happy with himself and all was well. But that one, I was like, I think I'm traumatized forever and I wasn't even there to witness that. But my own story of trauma that I'm thinking of is I was on my way to Cuba, I think this was over a year ago, and I took, I don't know what I took, God.

Nice.

it might've been, some form of laxative or...

that you took

it on your own.

Yeah, I think I yes, I it was not given to me. I knew what I was taking I gave it to myself Because I was clearly having issues and so I was why I took it before I got it on a plane I don't know. I believe this was something that I take regularly and never had a problem with let's just say that so I'm sitting on the plane and I am of course in the window seat

Just checking.

I don't think I've ever chosen a window seat since this plane ride. We're of course delayed on the tarmac for over an hour and this kicks in and I've got to go. And so I'm like, well, we're just sitting here. I'm just gonna bite the bullet and go. So I make the two people, you know, get up and I head to the bathroom. I get into the bathroom. Within like 30 seconds, there's like knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock on the door.

Mm-hmm.

Doctor.

And the flight attendant is like, we're about to take off. you need to get out of the bathroom. And I'm like, okay, okay. know, okay. And she's like, like you need to get out now. And I'm like, okay, okay, okay. So I'm like waiting in a second. I'm like, for the love of God, we have been sitting here delayed for over an hour. Like now, of course, I have to get out the bathroom. I'm like, okay, pressure, right? Pressure. So I'm trying to go as quickly as possible. I can't do it because

you hadn't even taken...

Mm.

they get on the loudspeaker on the plane and they're like whoever is in the bathroom basically I think the way they worded it was like hey folks you know sorry for the delay we're about to take off whenever whoever's in the bathroom will take their seat essentially is what they said so I'm like ⁓ my god so I leave I I think I had fucking tears in my eyes and I came out of the bathroom like my face is probably red I'm like luckily

No, Laura.

Yeah, but...

When everyone's looking

at you now.

No, but I mean also just like I'm sick like I'm literally physically ill I'm physically ill I'm in the bathroom and I'm not allowed to go down So I have to stop the operation and go back to my seat So luckily the back row was open. So I sat down the flight attendant goes to me She goes, are you okay? And I'm like, I'm not okay and she's like you don't look good I said I don't feel good and she's like, can I get you anything? Yeah, I need a fucking bathroom you just made me get out of the bathroom. I need the bathroom and she's like

Oh yeah, I mean that that's a problem.

good.

I'm so sorry. Like you're just gonna have to wait until she's like once we take off and the seat I'm like I like this is not a wait till we take off until like the seatbelt sign turns off situation But okay, I'm like I said I am sitting in this chair. I am NOT moving I'm sitting in this chair in the back row next to the bathroom in the second this flight takes off I have to go to the bathroom where we are going to have a problem I'm not exaggerating and she's like, I get you can I get you some medicine? And I'm like, I don't need medicine. I need the bathroom. my god, I was literally like

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

I think it's beyond that. It's beyond that at this point.

She probably saw the fear in my eyes and she was just like, my God, I'm so sorry. So finally the plane took off, I made it to the bathroom all was well. I probably didn't go back to my seat for an hour. You know, by the time that whole thing went down and then I waited for, these people were probably like, where did that girl go? And like, like she never came back to her seat. The plane took off. what happened to her?

I feel like it was her.

It was not good. So I had something similar happen to another girl on one of my group trips. She took something before a plane ride and she was like, I don't care. I just need to go to the bathroom. I said, do not do it. Do not do it. just do not do it. Don't take anything that's going to make you have to go to the bathroom before you get on a plane. And she's like, I don't care. Like I would love to go to the bathroom. I'm like, not on the plane, not on the plane. So she texted me from the tarmac, same situation. She's like, Laura, it just kicked in. We're about to take off. I don't think I'm going to make it. And I was like, girl, I told you.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. No, you don't get it.

Or like at least wait until you're on the plane and like you're up or something. Yeah.

to have a bathroom accessible, like there's going to be

like a one hour window potentially on a plane where you're not going to be able to use the bathroom. godspeed.

Yeah.

And have you ever considered adult diapers? to carry those. Or no, but for somebody like that where you're like, hey, I have an adult diaper as one of the takeaways in my carry-on bag for in case this happens and I

Well, this was not planned.

No, I mean, I could see that being beneficial maybe when someone... I could see it maybe being beneficial where someone knows they're potentially going to be sick and they do not have a bathroom. But obviously, that would take some planning to preemptively know that you need a Depend. ⁓

as like a backup.

I mean,

but like, what if you just always had one in there? Like, these are making me consider it. ⁓ You're like, yeah, Laura. Yeah, sorry. Moving on. Okay, yeah.

This is why I'm gonna have three, now I'm gonna have three suitcases, Jenna.

my god. Alright, moving on. So let's fast forward to Ecuador. You said

you were staying with a friend's family. Tell us what led up to the incident because I'm assuming you didn't plan to clog a toilet in Ecuador.

Yeah. Well, this is, ⁓ yeah, I quite.

quite similar to the things that you were just discussing that would lead up to the story. so this is like completely opposite of the problem in my first story This was like days and days of like nothing coming out, which is not what happened the first time, might I add. And nor did I take anything for it.

And it was again in a really small community because apparently that's what I like to do. So I was staying with a local family and again, the language barrier was another issue. Just, just in terms of not being able to communicate properly what was going on. And at this point there was nothing that I needed to communicate. However, until after the incident, but it was kind of going along with the issue that

Make your presence known.

you said you guys had or your passenger had on a sailboat. But this wasn't a sailboat. was again, just probably not an opportune piping system, I'm going to say, in a small town community, kind of in the middle of nowhere again. And that was when probably like I hadn't pooped for multiple days. And so that was, becoming a little bit of an issue where I was like, all right, well, whenever this

does happen, which hopefully soon, otherwise I'm gonna have to get that checked out, because it was reaching that level of concern. And then all of sudden I was visiting with my friends at her host family's place. wasn't her real family, her host family. And again, English wasn't their first language. I had just everything that I needed to get out for multiple days finally came out.

and there was a bunch of really cute younger guys in this community and we knew them and they knew us and so having to call in somebody else to get help was like the first step and so then they gave us me and my friend

know some snaking and plunging materials and extra buckets of water because of course they're bucket flush systems they're not like hooked up to water so you have to actually take water and pour the water into the bowl in order for it to flush so to try get enough water to go in to flush this wasn't working.

and we were still back at square one so we actually had to they had to call all of like the the community members to help fix the problem and they came in with this I kid you not it was like a 50 50 yard snake that they were holding all the way out onto the street there was probably like eight guys there

from the bathroom out onto the street holding the snake and they were pushing it down into the toilet one by one

they were slowly trying to get it pushed down the pipe through the toilet until whatever part of it was clogged came unclogged. And this went on for a very long time. And they just kept calling more and more people until there was like 30 people outside of the house.

And it was becoming like a whole spectacle. And I'm just standing there like, please nobody mention it was me. Can I just disappear into this? Because they're all looking and laughing and I was mortified. Because I had to see these people like almost every day for the next like couple months. Anyways, eventually they got it sorted out. But again, it's another one of those circumstances where you're...

You just don't consider how much bodily fluids might interact with your vulnerability experiences while traveling. So one of the rules I learned after this, because I've had situations where I've tried to use the toilet and it doesn't flush, or there's no water to flush it, or then something happens and you need to wash your hands and then there's no water in the sink, or you're on the toilet and then realize there's no toilet paper. So I have my three-prong rule.

for going to the bathroom in unfamiliar places, you check and make sure that the toilet can flush if you need to do something. You have to flush it first or at least make sure there's a big bucket of water nearby that you can grab and flush it yourself. ⁓ Check and make sure there's toilet paper or always carry toilet paper on you. Or third, check the sink and make sure if you do end up in some form of messy situation that you can at least wash your hands off after.

to flush it first.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

and or have soap. I guess carrying wet wipes and hand sanitizer also would be on that list because if you have all three, that's the trifecta of having a great bathroom experience to me.

always laugh at me because I tell them to travel with wipes and I I always have at least three of those on me every single day Whether I give them out to somebody else or I'm handing them under the stall or I'm using them myself like you're gonna run into

a situation and hopefully not a situation, but they happen has them. sometimes if there's countries or places where I know there isn't a lot of toilet paper, I'll pack a bunch of extra toilet paper in my bag in case. I've said so many times.

situation.

I do too.

where there hasn't been toilet paper and then you're like, my God. And sometimes it's bad and sometimes it's really bad. But also with, I know there's not toilet paper. I make it known for the next person. Yeah. Like I make it known to the person. obviously sometimes like toilet paper, there isn't going to be any, but if it's a place where you know, they're just out and they're unaware, I first of all make sure that they know. But I also make sure that the next person coming in knows that there's no toilet paper so that they're not, sometimes it's too late by the time you figure it out.

to everybody. yeah, yeah.

Not in a similar situation.

totally. Yeah. Yeah. We've all been there where we've been under stalls being like, hey, can somebody pass me some toilet paper? Excuse me. And hopefully somebody understands what that means.

Excuse me.

Yeah, how nice must it be to be a man and not have to worry about toilet paper when you have every time you have to pee. I just recently finally used my Shiwi, which I literally remember purchasing this in Kenya the first time I went. I bought it on Amazon while I was in Kenya so that when I got home I would have it. And then I just for the last year kept forgetting to pack it. Like I would be traveling and I'd be like, Shiwi would have been

Yes!

Mm-hmm.

This, could have

used it, could have used it.

Yeah,

would've been so great in this situation, but I didn't think to back it. So I finally brought it to Cuba this last time. And I think I used it at least twice. And I was like, is this what it feels like to be a man? the she-wee is still inconvenient in that you have to remember it and you have to rinse it out. But I peed on the side of a road in a bush standing up without taking my pants down. And I was like,

Mm-hmm.

VMA, sure does, sure does.

to rinse it out. Yeah, totally. But still.

With nobody noticing,

yeah.

Yep. And it was a seamless bathroom experience. And everyone else was waiting in line and they're paying for toilet paper to pee in this shitty toilet and this messy bathroom. And I'm over here in a bush loving my life. I was. I know everyone in my group was looking at me I was gloating because I was just like I was like.

Yeah.

having the best day of your life. Yeah, you're like, I'm in nature.

I now I get it because when I was in Kenya, I was sitting on a bus or in the van or in the truck looking out the window. I saw a whole row of men from our group peeing behind a bush in a line nature's urinal. And then there was one woman next to them. And I was like, what? She's from the Netherlands. I'm like, what the fuck is she doing? She was standing and then I saw her do like the shake and I was like, what is she doing? She comes back on the in the truck and I was like,

Mm-hmm.

For sure she had one.

Did you what were you doing out there? And she's like, I have the Shoei and I had never heard of the Shoei So I was like, what is this Shoei you speak of so she tells me about it and I was like, what was the shake about and she's like I've just always wanted to do that and I was like, ⁓ Exactly you shake it off. my gosh life-changing life-changing the Shoei it is

Mm-hmm.

Top five things you'd do if you had a dick, right?

I know I recently got

one myself actually that's why I was pumped when you said that so I live in very cold middle of nowhere Canada so we do a lot of outdoor activities in the winter and when you think about having to like take off all your layers just to go to the bathroom and then you're freezing cold because you've taken off your jacket to get off your ski pants and etc so somebody actually told me well

I've heard about them for a while in the past, but they said that they're great for outdoor winter activities, because you don't have to get cold. So that was when I first started using mine, and I will admit, I actually practiced using it in the bathtub, because I was like, there's no... Is that what they say? Okay. Well, yeah, that's... Well, no. Yeah, okay.

Mm-hmm.

That's what they say. Well, in the shower, I mean, bathtub makes it sound like you're taking a bath, yeah, they say, I think they actually

say practice in the shower before you're in a real situation.

I didn't I didn't really read the how-to's I suppose but I guess I did it correctly anyways because I was like How do you know that if you're gonna leak or what's gonna happen? But having them in certain situations like having that ability is game-changing especially if you're somewhere where you're not comfortable Going to squat because there's a lot of people around and you need to go now. I think it's a great invention

You did it right.

You just gotta change.

It is. I would rather use the Shoei than squat over a toilet. For sure.

go into one of those

questionable toilets because I know you as a professional traveler. Totally.

correct or sit on a nasty. Yeah, I don't want to sit on

or like the hole in the ground situation I don't have the coordination for that and God forbid I've been drinking it's just not happening and then you're trying not to pee on your you got to take your pants off it's not happening. She we all the way.

Yeah.

Ha ha!

I know. And then,

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I know it's very helpful. that's another good point.

On the note of urination, I have another quick story related. This one happened, think this was a 2025 experience. So I'm coming home from Greece. told part of this story on the podcast, but not the whole story. But basically I'm coming home from Greece. my backpack is full of pottery that I didn't want to break in my checked bag. So my backpack is heavy as hell.

Mmm.

and I have a 12 hour layover in Chicago.

I haven't slept, so I'm tired as hell and my flight's not till 9 p.m. So I'm there like 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and I have to just stay awake and this is obviously a huge time change and I didn't sleep well on the flight. So I'm exhausted and thinking how the hell am I gonna stay awake? So I did pretty well until later in the day and I remember I was at my gate and I was just kind of waiting and I had probably three hours till my flight. So I laid my head down and set an alarm and I remember Eric being like, just don't.

oversleep, right? Because that would be my fear. And I was like, I'm laying on a table with my head down like I'm in detention. Like I'm not going to fall asleep for three fucking hours, right? ⁓ just kidding. Yeah, I am. Nope. I literally woke up. had I vaguely recall my alarm going off. And I remember the people who were around me were gone. And I was like, that's not a good sign. And so I I wake up.

there.

I look and it's time to board. So I'm like, well, I mean, like, at least it's time to board, right? Nope. I look in my flight, my, my gate had changed and it didn't change to like a nearby, gate. No, no, no. if you've been in O'Hare, it's a different concourse. That's a 20 minute walk. So I'm like, well, I don't have time to walk. So I am going to run, but guess what? I have a backpack.

wouldn't?

with 40 pounds of pottery on my back. I've been sleeping for three hours and I have to pee. I don't have time to pee. So I'm running, like literally running like a hunchback with my pottery. Like I'm embarrassed for myself. it was horrible. I'm embarrassed for everyone who had to see it. I'm running through with this pottery on my back.

Bye!

And at some point I pee my pants running because I had to pee so bad and I have 40 pounds of pottery on my back. And so I don't have time to stop. Like, what am I going to do? Miss my flight over this? Also, I live in a small town. We have one to two flights a day. If you miss your flight, you are fucked. You got 24 hours now in Chicago and I had to be home. Depending, yeah, depending how bad they feel for me after I get to the gate and tell them I pissed my pants. So.

Nice.

Yeah.

And then you gotta pay for it too, right?

I'm like, I am not missing this flight. I by the way have asthma, especially exercise induced asthma. And I will count running through exercise in this particular situation. Oh yeah, so I am running. I bet I ran for 10 minutes straight. I mean, that's more than I run ever. And then I have 40 pounds on my back. So I finally get to the gate, of course. I'm like, I'm literally like, you know,

and anxiety.

of course I get there and this is a tiny, tiny, tiny plane. So they're like, oh hey, what's up? we're just chilling. And I'm like, wait, there's no hurry. No, I just ran for literally nothing. I get on the plane, I'm sure my face was beet red. I'm wheezing. I thought I was gonna vomit. I was so thirsty and I had pissed my pants and I had to fly all the way home in my pee pants. And luckily not long, it's like an hour.

How long of a flight was that, do you mind me asking? Okay.

You know, it's a short flight, but I was,

Okay. But, I mean, still, but...

I was traumatized enough, but I saved the pottery. It all came home in one piece. Cause I would have been extra, extra upset if I got home, went through all that and then my pottery was broken, but pottery was fine. Pride took a little time to recover, but you know, just another day in the life of a professional traveler.

Yeah, that's exactly it. mean, when you travel the amount that you do and when you lead the amount of groups that you do with the amount of passengers, there's gonna be some good stories you end up with. Shit happens.

Shit happens.

Okay, so this might be the most universally relatable nightmare. Might not be with the same object, but let's talk about getting searched at airport security because I think we've all been there. But yours has a special twist, shall I say? What country were we in? What were you carrying? How did it go down?

Mm.

Mm-hmm,

so any you know family friends Or should I just say relatives listening now might be the time that you want to just click off of this next conversation Yeah, earmuffs earmuffs

Earmuffs. Earmuffs.

that's just for the sake of this story and for everybody involved, say that I had my personal massager present with me. I was starting like a 28 day trip and this was like my first stop. And I was so excited because to get off of that flight,

which was finally after 36 hours of traveling or whatever it was. I was one of the first people through getting my visa, everything was good, and I was like, awesome, I can see the outside, see my escape into paradise.

I was going to Zambia.

you

I was going to Zambia. I could ⁓ literally see that I was so close to freedom after my super long flight going from where I live in the middle of nowhere, Canada, ⁓ It takes a long time to get anywhere. So by the time I got to Zambia, it had been like, you know, 36 plus hours.

And I was excited because I was the first one that my my bags were the first ones off. So was just pumped. then I was walking out, giving my form, whatever. They pulled me over. And there's these two women that pulled me over. And they put my luggage up on this table. Now they wouldn't let anybody else out.

until they had finished looking through my things. So everybody else who had picked up their luggage and was waiting to get through now starts queuing up behind me. So at first it was just a couple people and then there was more and more and more. And they found my

Mmm, Steven audience.

in my luggage, which was kind of looping back to the beginning of this podcast where I said to remember how to keep things hidden. And I have now and I do have very good suggestions for how to do so after this. But they found this and they started waving it up in the air because little did I know that those sorts of objects were illegal in Zambia.

Mmm.

And so I'm trying to convince them of this and that because they want to confiscate it from me. And now I'm starting like a 28 day trip. So I'm going to need this at some point in my trip. And they start waving it around and they start calling over other security people to examine it to see if they're going to let me keep it or not. And they're waving it around in the air. And I'm like, ⁓ my God, please just

put it down and let's just have a conversation about this or take me into a different room honestly at that point just take me into a room to examine all my things but I mean there's probably like 30 40 people queued up behind me at this point and they're all watching and finally after it was maybe five seven minutes which felt like an eternity which is actually kind of a long time for an examination of

you know, ⁓ small little bag like that. Yeah, an artifact. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. Finally, she like looks at me. She's like, hmm, fine. I'll let you keep it. She's like, but be careful in this.

artifacts.

this country. I was like, right noted. So that was my first warning, my first experience to note that certain objects are illegal in certain countries. So that is a good lesson or takeaway, which I'm sure you'd loop back to, a good takeaway to check with your travel advisor just do a Google search or check with the laws of that country to see what are

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

and objects.

that's a good,

it's a good tip because sometimes it's things you wouldn't expect. And obviously there's like the standard things, but one that happens often for me, it's a drone. I always look up drone laws. I mean, that that's obviously not an everyday, every person situation, but

Yeah.

are not allowed in every country, but a big one, which

now is

a US issue is vapes aren't allowed in India. They're not allowed in Cuba. So moral of the story is Google illegal objects to take through countries in airports. I don't have time for the story, but my friend brought her mother's ashes through an airport in Costa Rica and obviously got questioned and had to explain that her with her shitty Spanish that her mom was in.

Right.

the jar and they were like, I don't understand. Yeah, you you'd need to do your due diligence. and like we talked about at the beginning, bringing you back full circle is just I think the more I travel, the

Sloppier I get sometimes with stuff because I do it so often that I don't think about it the way maybe Less experienced traveler would who's more paranoid and more like by the book and following the rules and prepping months in advance You know, I'm always packing the night before I'm like slapdash because I'm so busy not overthinking everything and that's when mistakes happen And one of my biggest mistakes that I make very frequently is bringing water through security

Mm-hmm.

In the United States also fun fact you can bring water through security in some countries. It's just not Some countries in some countries you can't but in Eau Claire, Wisconsin You cannot bring water through security and I will literally fill it up right outside of security and then walk through and then they're like ma'am Do you have a bottle of water and I'm like? Yeah, do I do that so so often my other one is knives

Yeah you can. Some countries.

You're like, yeah, I'm not the professional traveler you thought I was.

I have a lot of but One of them that happens more often than not is a wine bottle key. So I carry... I have like 10 of them. learned, obviously, I need to have one when I travel because I might have wine and nobody wants to have a bottle of wine and not be able to open it. So I always have one in my bag. And for some reason, when I was packing, I think this was Kenya, actually, was, you know, camping. And so I had put a camping multi-tool.

that's hilarious.

Mm-mm.

and a wine bottle opener. For whatever reason, it sounds real dumb right now. Like I moved it from my check bag into my carry-on. not thinking about the fact that I'm going through security. And so of course I get through security and they're like, do you have two knives on you? And I'm like, you know what? You got me, I do. I definitely do. So they pull them out and they're like, do you wanna go check these? And I'm like, first of all, how does that even work?

You

Yeah.

I might.

⁓ yeah, you know

I can't. My bag's gone.

You know, we

know that nobody, I mean, unless this is like some family heirloom, you know my ass is not going back out there to check a multi tool jack knife and a wine key. So just be careful about where you put things in your luggage. Good or bad. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Mm-hmm.

And especially when you're tired and you're kind of like at the end of your rope and that's when like the mistakes happen because you're like,

you're not thinking clearly. And sometimes if you're panic packing too, then you're throwing things where you're not thinking about either. Like putting like a, like the, battery chargers into checked luggage, which is not a thing. Like I've seen so many people lose theirs that way as well. So it's just, well, liquid is like, yeah, like expensive colognes or like perfumes.

Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes.

Liquid.

Liquids are

one of my biggest gripes with travel is that the rules are different everywhere when it comes to airports. obviously countries are different and cultures are different great, that is great. But airports I feel like should just be standard. Like here's how airports work universally. within Europe, the rules are wildly different in terms of what you can or can't bring from country to country.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

What's a liquid?

Yeah. Or a spice.

And I'm like, okay,

you're like basically letting me go from country to country now without even like barely showing a passport. Like you don't have to go through immigration anymore. Like you're letting people travel in Schengen But yet the rules are different for liquids. And so I have had so much stuff taken away because it's fine in Spain, but it's not fine in France. And then it's fine in England.

Mm-hmm.

but it's not fine in the Netherlands. it'll go from okay, bring all your shit. We don't care at all. keep it in your bag. We don't want to look at it. whatever. To take it out, put it in a plastic bag. Whatever fits in here is what you keep and whatever doesn't fit, that gets thrown away and they have zero fucks to give. It is so frustrating.

You get a cube.

It's,

and it's very sad, especially when you think that you've packed accordingly and then you have to get rid of some of your shit and you're like, mm, no, that hurts.

Yeah. I brand new stuff.

Yeah.

I'll

let you put that forward to the universal council out there. Let us know how goes, Laura.

I will, I will. Make it be known.

Okay, well, wrapping up here, do you think like all these stories have made you a better traveler?

I mean, absolutely. Maybe not, it might have been embarrassing at the time, but it's definitely taught me a lot about myself and how I react to situations and how I either let that become me or just bounce off my shoulders, you know? Because embarrassing things happen to people all the time. So just trying to let go of letting that be a defining moment in yourself and just...

Accepting it for the great story that it makes and I think sometimes it takes a little bit of time somewhere than the other with certain stories for how embarrassed you feel by it, but I Think that at the end of the day you learn a lesson from it and that can only make you a better traveler moving forward

Mm-hmm.

I always say, I know I'm gonna laugh at this, this is not funny right now, but I know I'm gonna laugh later. this is not funny right now, but I know like this is gonna be great later. I'm gonna look back and laugh, but right now I'm mad. But yeah, you can tell sometimes those stories. And like, it is this big contradiction of obviously you didn't want it to happen, but at the same time, it's such a great story and such a great memory in the end. And that is why this podcast is called Type 2 Travel, because

It's not funny at all right now.

Mm-hmm.

Totally.

Those are the memories that stick with you. yeah, we have like the beautiful moments and the happy moments and we can remember those. But I think sometimes these are the moments that stand out most. When you think about your stories, it's not I saw this beautiful sunset or I had this delicious meal. It's the time that you shit your pants in the airport. And I think psychologically your brain is wired to remember those memories.

Yeah, I mean

to remember trauma.

Traumatic moments, traumatic moments in the moment.

It's a drama.

trauma but also how you maybe overcame trauma, I think.

have you over

yeah exactly right like how you personally deal with it and the growth that you have as a person from being put in those situations and then accepting it and being like that's actually really not that big of a deal I'm fine it didn't hurt anybody I'm not hurt and I am I personally like to laugh at myself and make jokes about the situations in which I've overcome those from embarrassing moments so I just like to share that because to me that feels easier than

sitting there and being embarrassed about it.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think it's human we all have those stories. the more people share them I think the more human and relatable it makes you and I think also the more you Have experiences in your life Bad experiences or maybe at the time bad experiences the more of those that you get through in the grand scheme it ends up not being that big of a deal you can learn to laugh at it and have perspective and be like, okay, like I know this sucked but

Exactly.

we're going to be okay, right?

It's really, yeah,

it's not the end of the world. It's really just a part of life. A part of travel.

Absolutely. Okay,

so wrapping up here, we're gonna play a quick closing game. So we're gonna play would you rather travel edition. give you two equally mortifying travel scenarios and you have to pick which one you would rather experience. So would you rather get violently ill on a 12-hour bus ride with no bathroom and no place to stop? Apparently you've solved that with depends by the way. Or get violently ill at the table during a fancy dinner with important business contacts.

Yes. gosh.

Perfect.

I mean if it's just a dinner I'm probably going to go with that because at least it's not 12 full hours of having to deal with it and be sick and then it would be a really good opportunity for those business contacts to remember me. They'd always remember the time me as a girl who got violently ill and that might be a good starting off point because sometimes people get sick and that's okay but getting sick at a dinner versus 12 hours of being sick without a stop or a toilet sounds worse to me.

Mm-hmm.

Speaking of PTSD, that just gave me a flashback to fourth grade when I threw up on my teacher in front of my entire class. Like I went up to his desk to tell, like went up to him. I literally still remember the words. It was Mr. LeFave. I don't feel so, and I projectile vomited all over him and his desk. And my dad had to come get me and I am 42 and we still remember. I don't remember anything else about fourth grade. Just that.

my God, I projectile.

my god, poor man.

People

get sick sometimes, And we remember just the good things that happened to us. Okay.

Remember forever. Okay,

would you rather accidentally walk into the wrong hotel room while someone's changing or have someone walk into your hotel room while you're changing?

I'm gonna say somebody walk in while I'm changing because at least it's an embarrassing thing for me that I can kind of take the responsibility of and let go of. Whereas if I'm walking into somebody else's hotel room, I've made a mistake by walking into their hotel room when it's not mine, which I feel like could have more greater ⁓ ramifications as opposed to somebody else doing it and being like, hey, no, it's fine. Because I don't know how that person's gonna react.

ramifications.

and I know that I'd be cool with it, just get the hell out of my hotel room.

I did not have time to tell the story, but this reminds me very much so of how I was in the men's onsen in Japan and really, really doubled down on the fact that I thought I was in the women's and the naked man in front of me was in the women's. Nope, nope, I was in the men's onsen. My bad. So sorry, Zach, to this day, still apologizing.

no.

Moving on. Would you rather send a voice memo complaining about your travel companion to your entire contact list or post an unflattering photo of yourself to social media that goes viral? You can't take back.

Moving on. Next time.

⁓ Viral hmm I've never had anything go viral so I think I'm probably pretty safe on that one, but if it was I think unflattering I'd go with that with that option because if you're if you're being rude and complaining about somebody and then everybody hears that that's like a Character thing whereas if it's just an unflattering photo of my body That's a body image and ego thing and I think I can get over that a lot quicker than Everybody knowing that I said something really rude about a person

I like your answers Jenna, very selfless. Would, trying to be a good person, would you rather have explosive, we're gonna call it food poisoning, during a romantic gondola ride in Italy or during a silent meditation retreat?

Yeah, trying.

Well, you know.

So I'm engaged now, so I'm gonna go if it's with my With my fiance, then I'm gonna go with the whole romantic gondola ride because he's dealt with a lot worse things than That and we won't get into that But I'm sure I'd much rather be dealing with him on a romantic gondola ride Than I would dealing with whatever I needed to on a silent meditation retreat. Yeah

I think that'd be the much easier one to deal with.

Thank you so much for sharing your stories, being vulnerable, being able to laugh at yourself. I bet we could go all day if we had more time. But thank you so much for sharing. Where can people find you if they want to learn more about you or connect with you?

Yeah, we can.

You can definitely find me more on ⁓ I haven't given it into the tick-tock thing yet, but you can find me on ⁓ Instagram and also Facebook

Don't.

Cool. All right, Jenna, so great to talk to you and hope to see you soon.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Laura. Thanks, everybody. Have a good day.

That's all for this episode of Type 2 Travel. If you're loving these conversations, hit subscribe or follow, give us a 5 star rating, and share with your adventure seeking friends. Remember, the best stories rarely come from staying in your comfort zone. Until next time, this is Laura Ericson reminding you that your passport is collecting dust, your PTO is piling up, and the world is out there waiting for you to explore it.