Craziest Travel Story

I have a super slow day at work today and found myself thinking about some ridiculous travel stories I've had from the past few years and want to canvas WSO for some of your own. Can be anything from a weird or funny adventure to just an awesome experience. I'll get the ball rolling with one of my favorites:

While at a club in Madrid drunk off my face at about 5am, I thought it would be a great idea to buy a 9am (one way) flight to London without telling the group I was with. I ended up losing my wallet en route to the airport so showed up to customs with nothing but my phone (with no service) and my passport. I then found out I had actually flown into Stanstead instead of Heathrow and had to just kind of wing it to get into the city. Ended up meeting a large group of people, doing a pub crawl, and ultimately sleeping in the lobby of a UCL building.

What shenanigans have you all gotten into as of late?

 

Flight home through Beijing after a planned visit to SE Asia and China. The ignorant American in me never considered the need for a Visa.

Day 1: Chinese consulate in Bangkok closed for Thai Holiday

Day 2: Chinese consulate in Bangkok closed for Lunar Holiday

Day 3: Arrived to Chinese consulate at 7:30 AM only to spend the entire day in a waiting room. I was required to hand my Visa over to a random gentleman, pay a $300+ expedited Visa request and write a generic letter to President Xi as to the nature of my stay.

End of day, I received my Visa. I had requested a 3-month Visa, and they provided me with a ten year Visa. Mind you, the two women next to me, who had been waiting all day, were rejected on the spot. They were teaching English to Chinese children in a remote part of northern China and were still rejected. What a bizarre experience.

TL;DR: Always check Visa requirements before planning international travel.

 
 

I was in Beijing and my friend Johnny and I wanted to hit up a place to BS around and get some food and drinks and stuff. At some point, we made a mistake in choosing the establishment, because it started getting weird about 10-20min in. We booked a full service room in this Karaoke place and started ordering drinks and food. It seemed pretty normal. The room was quite large I thought though, with a bunch of couches everywhere.

Then, three guys walk in the door and then about ten Chinese girls all walk in, in a line and stand in front of the big screen TV at the front of the room. My Mandarin was mediocre at that point and my friend's was worse, so we were having trouble figuring out what was going on. Finally, the leader of this little group of guys (7 more seemed to walk in after the girls and the last one locked the door - wtf) and said to 'pick two'.

Well, this was starting to get weird. There must be 10 bodyguard type Chinese dudes and 10 chicks in this room and my friend Johnny and I are just getting hammered and eating food. Not to mention we both smoked some pretty strong hash earlier and Johnny was freaking out about the whole situation. He kept whispering 'I'm freaking out man' - I felt like I was in Super Troopers or something.

So finally we picked two girls and agreed to just take it easy and pay whatever and get out of this place. So we start to be chill and the girls were climbing all over us and rubbing us down and feeding us grapes (not sure where the grapes came from, but it actually made me feel better for a moment, then not so much).

We started to try to leave and I asked to pay for the bill and the leader dude said 'you must pay all'. I had no idea what he was talking about and he elaborated and said 'give me all your money'. I had quite a bit of Yuan in my wallet and was a bit willing to throw down with this guy as this was BS. Johnny was like 'dude just give him your money.' I told Johnny how much I was carrying (it was like a few hundred US, which is a lot in Beijing), and he was like 'I don't care, I'll give you that money later'.

I still wasn't satisfied. I wanted to try to get out free and clear, so I got out my phone to call the Chinese police and the dude man-grabbed my phone and threw it against the wall. I think I saved my own ass at that moment by not hitting him as when I later backed off, I saw all his little posse was on their toes, and it looked like Johnny was not going to fight.

I finally gave him a couple hundred. It wasn't everything. But, it started to look very bleak and there was no way out.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I was in Beijing solo for 4 days the summer of 2016 before meeting some friends elsewhere in the Asian sphere. Had heard about similar scams the first night there because I had stupidly allowed myself to get scammed by a fake taxi at the airport who charged me about $70 as opposed to the general $15 for a real cab, after which I got online and did research. This dude who gave me a ride was going well over 100mph on the highway it and my seatbelt didn't work so it was not a good intro to mainland China.

I don't speak a word of Mandarin beyond Ni Hao, so the next day when a very attractive Chinese girl approached me speaking way too good of English, I started speaking the most elementary German I could come up with and kept walking. Beijing is rife with scammers unfortunately, coupled with the fact that all the censorship makes it difficult to use western technology at times, I do not recommend travelling there without someone who has been before. Going there solo was one of the dumber travel decisions I made. Still had a great time, but spent those days mostly keeping to myself except for when the locals wanted to take a picture with the dude with light hair.

 

In between Fall and Spring semester Senior year, I thought I would brush up on my Spanish to prepare for any bilingual interviews I might get in the Spring before picking an offer.

But, also, my roommate was leaving from Miami to do scuba diving in Jamaica and Grand Cayman a few days before classes started back up and I wanted to do that too.

So I booked a ticket to Buenos Aires for a couple weeks. I had no reservations or anything. I just showed up at the airport and winged the whole trip. I met this dude named Pepe in the airport who showed me which bus the locals take. I took that bus to the city and checked in at this hostel Pepe was talking about (he worked at the hostel).

Buenos Aires is cool. There was this one chick everyone was macking on at the hostel. 30s chick from LA. Hot blonde. I saw her later that night at the club in Buenos Aires and just went for the makeout pretty early in our conversation. She actually said 'that took balls' props - and that became the beginning of a fling I had with this chick from LA in South America. She was so excited at that moment for some reason that she wanted to buy us champagne and then go to Uruguay. I thought she was drunk talking or something and was like, 'sure lets go to Uruguay'. Well, we actually did go to Uruguay. We went to Punte del Este for about a week, but I had to get back to Buenos Aires as I had a flight to Miami for the meetup point in this scuba diving trip.

My flight back to Miami was like 6am New Years day and somehow I thought I could go from Uruguay to Buenos Aires, party in Buenos Aires for new years, then catch a flight to Miami. I did. It all worked out and had a good time diving in Jamaica (Ocho Rios) and Grand Cayman.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
Most Helpful

I was on a surf trip in Indonesia headed to Lakey Peak in Sumbawa and also spent some time in Bali.

The drivers on the scooters are crazy. In Bali, if someone wants to pass coming from the opposite way, sometimes they will play chicken with you to get out of the way (of your own lane).

As a gringo, I stick out as the tourist with no balls, right? This white dude surely will get out of the way.

Wrong. I'm in my lane. Come at me bro.

This guy hit me head on in my own lane at about 50mph (he came on my side of the road). I had a helmet and stuff, but I was wearing sandals and although luckily my body was intact (no broken bones), my feet got really tore up that night. There were little rocks and pebbles embedded in my feet that I had to peel out over the course of the night. It really sucked. My left ankle was ground to the bone. I have a big patch on my left ankle now (like a blotch scar). Also, my friend only had rubbing alcohol, no hydrogen peroxide --- such pain. This was after we came back from Sumbawa, so we already surfed, but I was a bit of a mess on the end of that trip. I still have scars on my feet from that accident.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
Pita Bread:
How were the waves? Worth the hassle it takes to get to Indo?

The waves were good. They weren't exceptional and clean beach breaks or anything like that, but I caught some good rides and had fun. My friend Charles used to spend 3 months in Indo every year and go surfing and spearfishing. I told him to message me when a really good swell was coming and I'd hit up Indo. He said one was coming in 3 days and I was there in 2. I didn't bring a board or anything. He had about 8 there and he brought three to Lakey Peak and let me use one. He doesn't normally let people use his boards, but we have been friends for a very long time and pretty much use each others gear, boards, thule racks, whatever.

It was about double to triple overhead. Mostly breaking very far out and a bit choppy. The paddle out at Lakey Peak when I was there was pretty brutal for me. I was in very good shape, but not 'surfer' shape, which is a very unique set of muscles and an arch in your back and neck that you get used to over time. I should have done some paddling before I went there to build up my muscles just in flat water, but I didn't. I paid for it. I spent a lot of time in the whitewash and got very battered just to catch a choppy double overhead wave. I'm not the greatest surfer, in fact I kind of suck for how many hours I have put in, but got some good rides in there.

On one of the biggest waves I have caught, or almost caught, I went over the falls almost immediately and just knew I was pretty deep. I even felt my board pull me down farther towards the ground, which never happens and it must have been an odd swirl in the water, but I felt pretty f'ed at that point. I'm pretty good at remaining calm and when I hit the water, I took a zen like mindset with my heartbeat to conserve oxygen. But, even with this mindset, I felt in a very bad place for a bit. I think 30 seconds passed at this point and I was pretty far under water. Another 30-40 passed and I felt like I was going to drown. I mean this white water was one big, long ass washing machine that I was just trapped in the middle of ... in the middle of the ocean, maybe 9 feet down (I felt my ears pop). I didn't let the scared emotion come over me so as not to increase my heartbeat and I accepted the fact that I was going to drown.

I think I felt about 10 seconds of just 'this is the end'. I wasn't surfing very near anyone at that point and the whitewater was very far away from where the waves were breaking. Finally, I felt my lungs screaming for intake and started to take in water just as I hit the surface. As I was coming up, I probably took in a liter or something of water. It was a lot. I was coughing and felt dizzy and like shit, but somewhat happy to breathe. The place we were staying had really good banana chocolate chip pancakes (you know the place if you've been to Lakey Peak). All I felt like was eating those pancakes and a warm, dark, strong Indonesian cup of coffee. I could see the top of the restaurant from the ocean.

But, then I snapped out of that pussy shit and paddled back out to catch another wave. Because I was already halfway to the break in the water and I wasn't going to paddle out and then paddle in. So time to suck it up and get gnarly... right?

So, in summary, worth it? I don't know. I had a few good rides, but as a surfer I feel like if you're really G with it, you're a mystic that takes in the elements and the journey and people to form an experience of not only the rides in the ocean, but what it took to get there and who you met along the way.

But, technically and to be accurate, Lakey Peak does get killer sized waves and my friend Charles has a video of him on a 30 foot wave just killing it like it was out of Surfer Magazine or something.

I surfed J-Bay in South Africa and it was more fun than Lakey Peak for me and the paddle out wasn't that bad. But, the most fun I've ever had on a break was in Hossegor, France when I was there for a week and it was just peeling off perfect head to head and a half barreling waves right on the sand. I caught the waves standing in chest high water and would just pop up on my board and ride them to 1ft water or so and jump off and these clean sets were just coming all day. I caught more waves that day than any other place in my life. And my friends and I were out there so long in the day surfing that we all got 3rd degree burns even with sunblock. It was worth it though. Boardshorts and clean barreling waves on a nice summer day in France.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
Gilgamesh95:
Tell me the other guy got fucked

It was a crazy ass moment. I remember impact and my millisecond feeling of wtf "this guy actually didn't move" riiiiiiiight before impact, which is probably what he thought as well. Then, its like of like freeze frame memories for me after that point.

We hit and my scooter started sliding and it was a real crazy moment because I was going like 15mph sliding ... in sandals ... and these other scooters are whizzing by going 40-60mph. It was dusk, but a bit darker at this moment and I tried to stand the scooter up and get my bearing and look back at my lane and its just 100 lights whizzing by me. After skidding to a stop, I looked at my feet, because they felt like they were on fire for a second, but now were kind of numb. After thinking they didn't seem to be broken, I caught a glance of this guy and he was really making an effort to get the hell out of there as fast as he could. I couldn't tell how battered he was.

I was actually following my friend Charles and didn't have a phone on me. Charles is crazier than I am, so he was going like 70mph on these roads and I was just trying to keep up. I specifically said to him I didn't have a phone and he was like "you better keep up then."

So after all this happened, I was actually focused on trying to catch Charles on the bike and get out of there fast as well, bloody or not. The bike was a bit messed up. It took a few dents, the handlebars were off and I shoved them back into place, and it wouldn't start.

I went to the side of the road and just sat there, looking at my bloody feet. I didn't know what I was going to do. I figured I'd get some food or something. I knew how to get back to where we were staying, but we were supposed to meet our friend Steve for Chinese food.

Then, Charles showed up and is like 'where the fuck did you go', then sees my feet are all bashed and is like 'bro, told you not to wear sandles with scooters'. Of course, he wears sandles sometimes. He somehow figures out how to start this thing and then we went to Steves, and I had such a brutalizing session of getting the rocks and dirt out of my feet that this girl I had never met before was there and she was like 'that looks really rough bro', I was like I know 'I need a hug', so she gave me a hug for like 20 seconds. Then, back to picking the rocks out of my feet and scrubbing my flesh with rubbing alcohol.

Then, Chinese food. That was pretty good actually.

Here's the helmet I had in the crash, was pretty good:

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Riding a scooter in Bali is definitely one of the most dangerous things I've ever done. Distinctly remember kissing the pavement (or dirt actually) after we made the trek from Jimbaran to Keramas, bodies and surfboards in tact. Also got pulled over twice cause we weren't locals and had to bribe the cops with 100,000 rupiah, which was only about $10 at the time but felt like it might as well have been $100 given how cheap everything was (also learned that day to break up whatever wad of cash you have and hide it in different places so when they ask for 'all you have' you don't have to actually fork all of it over).

Did you get staph or anything from the fall? A lot of buddies, and my brother too, have gotten staph either from road rash or reef rash in Indo.

It is what it is.
 
RealEstateNerd:
Did you get staph or anything from the fall? A lot of buddies, and my brother too, have gotten staph either from road rash or reef rash in Indo.

I didn't get staph or anything. Is that if you don't scrub it out good enough? I've seen some pictures/videos of scrubbing out reef rash on people's backs and it looks like legit torture. The screams in those videos are blood curling.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Basically, business partner brought back a ton of well known people to our hotel room at 3AM, then proceeded to do a ton of coke (which was fun) and our video/marketing guy quit the day after because of it and flew home early. We also flooded the hotel room by accident because my business partner passed out in the bathtub. It was a really nice hotel but also on his cc so I didn't really care.

Loads of misc weird shit though at that one conference because it's in an industry for degenerates...

 

A coworker of mine got this exclusive project in Tokyo when we were based out of DC in a management consulting firm.

The trip seemed epic. They were flying to Tokyo on a 747 and the client rented out the top floor with an open bar. They put the consultants up at the Ritz there, which was nice by our usual standards.

All of the managers left, but my peer (we were both recent grads) decided to take up an offer to stay at the Ritz by the client. Apparently the client and he were hanging out late one night and the client said to 'stay at the Ritz as long as you want - its on us'. Something like that. He stayed there for a week and charged another $15K to the client (as the client offered). Well, these fees still hit our expense accounts and actually it was kind of a wtf when his manager saw it.

It was funny because he got back from this trip and was all bragging about staying at the Ritz and charging everything to the client, and then all of a sudden he is in hot water about it with his manager. But, then his manager called the client to apologize and the client had so many good things to say about this guy that he got off free and clear. Then it became a hilarious joke in the office. I don't know how some people pull this stuff off - haha.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Backpacked through Europe after graduating as part of a 12 country trip. This was during the 2012 Euros - Poland/ Ukraine so started there and made my way west. While this trip had a number of epic moments, the highlight has to be my my time in Prague. Probably the most ridiculous time I ever had.

The 1st night met 3 English blokes who were there just for shits. We hung out for four days and they almost killed me with their drinking. Two were on Army leave from being stationed in the Falkland islands for half a year, they just wanted to drink and fuck everything that moved- I guess couldn't fault them given the only thing you have there is sheep and two sleepy bars. Every night we'd do a pub crawl, a great way to meet people and get plastered on the cheap. Every crawl would end up in a club at the end of the night- aka hook up time.

Prague is full of hostels and foreigners from all over looking to get wasted and hook up. You have to be almost impotent for it not to happen. Anyway, at one of these clubs we mingled with a bunch of Australians chicks on a euro trip themselves. My English mates somehow get split from me and before I know it I'm on the way to the Australians' hostel somewhere on the outskirts of the city.

They sneak me into the girls only dorm (16 beds). It's like 3 am and I start banging this one girl right away, while others either pass out or go smoke. Midway through, a girl that was there wakes up and suddenly decides to join us. Doing two girls simultaneously on bunk beds is not ideal, but somehow we made it work. Funny part others just watch us and sometimes help out, it was basically a mini orgy. Eventually we pass out all over; floor, bed, one girl even woke up in the shower.

Worst part is that they have to leave at 6am for a bus to the next city.. meanwhile I cant find my clothes anywhere. They all pack around me while i just sit there naked and half dead. One of them gives me long pants and shirt and they take me to the hostel breakfast. There I meet the Australian dudes that were traveling with them.. everyone knows whats up, giving me high fives and whatnot. They finally leave and I have no fucking idea where I am, my phone is dead and I have no money. It took me three hours and maybe 10 miles to walk back to the hostel I was staying at. That same night meet up the English dudes again and we repeat.. no threesomes though.

Oh and there was this one club that we went to where you watch midgets have sex and you can throw them if you want.. no kidding

 

Not mine, but definitely worth sharing. Also a little more on the terrifying side.

Friend was studying abroad and was at some city in Spain, either Madrid or Barcelona, can't remember which. Her and her friend were staying at a hostel and decided to go out that night. Girl A meets a guy at the bar and they hit it off, start talking, dancing, smooching, the usual. Eventually they decide to leave as her friend, girl B, decides to head back to the hostel.

Girl A goes back with this guy to his place, they start making out, he tries to take things a step further and she isn't really into it. He offers, instead, for a nice massage. A little strange, girl A, thinks, but whatever. He grabs some lotion and starts giving her a back massage. Meanwhile, her friend, girl B, discovers she is locked out of the hostel (girl A has the key), and so calls her friend who is currently getting a massage. Girl A answers, says sure, I'll come back to let you in. She says bye to the guy and heads home. Girl A and girl B both sleep in the hostel that night.

The next morning, girl A wakes up and discovers she has an awful rash on her back, like her skin is literally falling/flaking off. They immediately go to the hospital and the doctors tell her a flesh eating bacteria has taken a hold of her skin. Turns out, the guy she met was a cannibal and was using the lotion to prepare her skin to make it better to eat. The authorities were called and they stormed his address, but he was gone by that point. Alas, they found the eaten remains of two other females in his home.

If the friend hadn't gotten locked out, or if they didn't have international calling, or any other small thing, girl A would have been a snack, literally.

 

went to bangkok during yellow shirt red shirt protests or whatever that was back in 2010? the hotel I was staying in had two separate locations (A&B) in bangkok. Taxi driver took me and my family to the other hotel (B) instead of the one we were staying at (A). A flyover connected the area between both the hotels. Hotel B requested us to stay there for free and go back in the morning because the are was closed because of the protests. We could hear gunshots and stuff, felt like a scene straight out of a movie. But old grandmother was alone in hotel A, so adamant parents wanted to go back. Every taxi/tuk tuk driver refused to cross the flyover. After an hour found one tuk tuk guy brave enough to take us to hotel A. He just told us to crouch and keep our heads down until we cross the flyover. Halfway through the flyover, gunshots and speech got louder. A minute or two later someone on the side of the road threw a couple of glass bottles at us.

The tuk tuk probably felt as fast as a lamborghini that day. Got back safe but that was the scariest thing I had experienced apart from my interviews

edit: just remembered. The day on our flight, as we left our hotel in a taxi, saw a group of protestors kick everyone out of a bus and proceed to burn it. Also iirc some important building was burnt and flights were limited or something. Apparently the whole protest thing went crazy the day after I left because some leader was killed

 
Funniest

Was flying back from vacation in Amsterdam and my flight was delayed so i decided to kill my boredom at a bar near the airport. As anyone who's been there knows, the beer there is fucking strong and I was drinking that shit like it was bud light so needless to say I got impaired. I grabbed my suitcase and headed to the airport and when the put my suitcase under the x-ray, they got suspicious so they opened it. Inside were about 5 EXTREMELY large dildos AND a leather whip and some kinky ladies underwear. The guys couldn't stop laughing and I was so drunk trying to explain it made it worse and one dude couldn't even get up from his chair from laughing. Turns out I grabbed the case of the girl sitting next to me at the bar because they were almost identical. She was not too far away behind me and she got embarrassed when she had to say "sorry, that' actually mine." The entire security line was in tears...

"I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing. " -GG
 

I think my best story is my Eastern European trip in Spring 2015 with about 4 of my fraternity brothers. We were in Budapest and Prague, which entailed a lot of debauchery, but nothing too out of the ordinary. We decided we wanted to get some "real" Eastern Europe so we rented a car and drove to Belgrade.

To kick things off in a funny way, about 15 minutes from the Serbian border a Hungarian officer on foot with a speed gun clocked us going about twice the speed limit in a classic speed trap. The dude literally walked out into the middle of the highway and just held his hand up. The officer speaks about 15 words of English and we obviously don't speak Hungarian so he's pointing to a laminated paper in English showing our speed and the fine which was something like 400 Euros and potentially having the car impounded. My buddy driving was living in LA at the time and hands his license to the cop. In something straight out of Eurotrip, the cop goes "CAL-LEE-FORN-YIA, I love CAL-LEE-FORN-YIA, 90210..." I shit you not, I guess our finest late 2000s sitcoms have made it over there. The guy ends up letting us off with two 10 kmh over tickets which equated to about 40 Euro which I am sure he subsequently pocketed.

We make it to our Airbnb in Belgrade, it's a Monday. We ask our host what we should do that night, and he suggests we go to Mr. Stefan Braun but if we do get there before midnight because it gets packed. He also warned us to not use local cabs because they tend to be mafia. So we pregame a bit at some pub down the road then head to the club right at midnight. There are about 10 giant bald Serbs who look like what you would expect; this quickly sets the oh shit, where the hell are we mentality in. The club is also on the top floor of a dark skyscraper so that doesn't help. We're the only ones there so we order a bottle to share and sit down, thinking it might be a wasted night. About 30 minutes in people are filling in and some weird 40-something year old guy just sit down beside me and proceed to tell me how not everyone here likes America about 5 times. I ignore him long enough, and thankfully by about 130/2am the place is actually raging.

To shorten this, people show up, I go back with the crew minus 1 and some Canadian girls we met around 3am. 1 guy stays back late with a Serbian chick (in spite of her looks we were kind of all advising against the situation, but what can you do), they cab back sometime between 4-5am by his recollection to her place. The cab driver up front had said 5 Euro, but demanded 50 when they got there. My buddy is very stubborn so gets out and takes a photo of his plates and says he's going to report him, at which point the driver is mid jab to his face. After the punch my buddy paid up and got out of the situation, but the great thing was the next day back at our Airbnb we realized he had literally caught a perfect photo of the guy looking right at the camera with his fist 0.2 seconds from clocking my friend in the face. I still have the photo saved on my phone. Thankfully no one lost a kidney.

Sidenote: if you're ever in Belgrade, actually go to Mr. Stefan Braun. It was genuinely one of the most fun clubs I've been to with gorgeous eastern European chicks and the complimentary 45-year old overweight mob boss entertaining them. I met a Serbian guy last summer who went to school and works in the US who asked me where I had gone while visiting, and when I mentioned "Mr. Steven Somebody" he was pumped. It sounds like if you go there on a normal Thur-Sat night, it's the place to be.

 

Ahhh reminds me about the time I was in Japan. Was out at an onsen with my mates naked and met a chill French guy, who was soley in Japan to study there and pick up chicks. Every time we moved around to different spas though, the native Japanese would sit away from us. Eventually every Japanese person left the onsen and it was just me and the boys.

 

Not really crazy, but on my flight from Prague we had a layover in Paris during a blizzard. As all flights were grounded and we were flying Air France, apparently it was policy to put you up in a hotel for the evening.

For about 30 minutes we stand in line while the poor receptionist dials every hotel she can, getting farther and farther from the airport, with no luck.

At some point her face lights up, she says, "Tre bien, magniFIQUE!!!" And hangs up. She hands us an address card and says to hand it to any taxi driver outside.

Where do we end up?

Disneyland Paris, full suite with meals included, on the house.

Metal. Music. Life. www.headofmetal.com
 

In 2005, I was working in London and commuting back to my lady in the NYC once a month or so. At some point they made a new rule that they will search every bit of luggage on cross-Atlantic flights or some shit like this. So I get a silly idea that I don't need any luggage, since I am flying back to NYC for 3 days. Of course, after I show up at the airport with no luggage the security people feel that it's "suspicious" and don't let me on the plane.

I have a friend who lives in the country, and it's supposed to be an hour from 42nd Street. A lie! The only thing that's an hour from 42nd Street is 43rd Street!
 

Lol I managed to skirt this exact same situation during my Madrid --> London debacle. I show up reeking of booze with nothing but a passport and phone on me and I'm speaking to the woman at customs and she goes:

"So let me get this straight: you're an American student, coming from Madrid by way of Canada, to London, on a one way flight with no bags, on spring break but you're alone, and you don't know where you're going or who you're staying with?"

And at that point I just had to basically be like yep that's the long and short of it and she just stamps my passport and told me to have a great day. Seems like I caught a lucky break with my customs agent.

 

I was studying abroad for a semester in Hong Kong, and it was a legendary Wednesday night after horse races in the red light district, Wan Chai.

After partying it up til 3-4am at the college bars and clubs, a bro and I head out into the deep Red Light. Prostitution being legal in HK, it was an interesting dynamic. There are several independent hookers ready to make moves on incoming men.

I start chatting with a cute Phillipino lady in her mid 30s until she drops the price: the eq of $150USD. I tried to lower the price to a Ben with no success, but we had a great time still.

At 6 am as I leave the hooker bar and head back to sleep a bit before classes, I find the Phillo lady outside, and she offered me to come home with her! At no charge, of course

She was indeed, a pro. Banged til she had to suck me dead. Got to my 12pm Mandarin class looking like alcohol and got a few stares.

At least conversationally fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Russian
 

They’re independent and can do as they like with their time, and she was going back home alone. She saw me and offered me to go home with her since we had got gotten along well earlier haha

At least conversationally fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Russian
 

Est harum quia sunt iste suscipit consequatur odio. Labore libero architecto quam fuga occaecati voluptatem sint. Qui exercitationem velit maxime quis deleniti maxime minima. Aut quibusdam molestias quo unde.

Et molestias perferendis consequatur aut. Ea autem sequi inventore culpa officiis vitae. Illo nihil est assumenda corrupti et magni nulla eos.

Facilis vitae et magnam vel ea tempore. Accusantium atque excepturi qui. Magni amet id reprehenderit ullam iste consequatur. Et accusantium sit omnis est eius.

Aperiam unde provident reiciendis quia. Et illo cupiditate ex ipsa ut maiores. Enim repellat tenetur esse incidunt rerum itaque voluptatem. Esse autem magnam libero dolore et rerum blanditiis. Esse ducimus nemo autem enim soluta voluptatibus et. Repudiandae dolor iusto sequi quibusdam reiciendis qui. Recusandae enim alias tenetur dolor.

 

Quod magnam qui qui facilis animi quas optio. Cumque repudiandae ullam magnam et et. Quae dolorum maxime qui qui illum dolorem reprehenderit.

Repudiandae cupiditate sunt ad et expedita nisi natus. Voluptatem suscipit quibusdam quos ex voluptatem corrupti aut.

Quidem debitis nam labore repudiandae non. Non tempora vero quisquam. Commodi est rerum ex aut laborum. Saepe id quia commodi voluptatem est fugit. Quia nobis molestiae repudiandae illum at.

Officiis atque odio aperiam dolore amet reprehenderit quidem. Ducimus voluptatibus modi repudiandae unde reprehenderit laudantium numquam.

At least conversationally fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Russian
 

Cumque consequuntur illum dolorem illo aut nesciunt ex. Et soluta ducimus rerum provident quia occaecati rerum totam. Consequatur sapiente aperiam fugit accusamus voluptas nisi harum. Deleniti ut officia occaecati consequatur libero magnam ut incidunt. Dolor doloribus repudiandae voluptatem error quis perferendis eius non.

Commodi dolores tenetur est quia fuga veritatis rerum rem. Enim ea voluptate omnis voluptatem dolores sapiente. Vitae quia fuga enim praesentium architecto illo temporibus. Dolores voluptatibus aperiam ipsum sapiente.

Incidunt quis similique vel necessitatibus minima odit. Harum perspiciatis corporis repellat. Pariatur dolores vitae excepturi aperiam eligendi eum repudiandae consequatur.

 

Quia aliquid enim voluptates nihil. Fuga voluptas nihil ullam incidunt dolore est. Sit laborum molestias quia amet. Non expedita exercitationem illum eum consequatur id voluptas ut.

Perspiciatis sint animi a aut inventore. Natus assumenda consequatur eius illo. Esse soluta consectetur at minus. Consequatur velit amet magnam hic ut at optio. Quia dolores dolorem maxime saepe tempore.

Ut fugit quibusdam deleniti numquam veritatis. Voluptatem quia consequatur eum veritatis officiis praesentium. Ipsam est doloremque id in rerum. Eligendi corrupti et ea est et et sint. Aliquid in distinctio expedita error cumque et a necessitatibus. Explicabo debitis nemo vero numquam. Quia reiciendis non iusto qui.

Est ea molestiae error quo et excepturi incidunt corporis. Ut at explicabo ut natus ad sed aperiam. Autem quisquam enim quo aut pariatur voluptatem repellat voluptatibus. Corrupti id ipsa quia maxime id ex animi rerum.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”