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Travellers' questions that don't fit anywhere else This is an opportunity to ask any question, and post any notice you wish that doesn't fit into one of the other sections.
Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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  #1  
Old 8 Jan 2012
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Not on a motorbike but there was a man who got stuck and was living in a french airport for more than 10 years
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Old 9 Jan 2012
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Originally Posted by pbekkerh View Post
Not on a motorbike but there was a man who got stuck and was living in a french airport for more than 10 years
That's real bad luck if you add that French airports are usually voted among the worst ones to sleep in!

I was crossing from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan and there was a British girl who had her visa dates mistaken (she did not notice that before). She was offered to wait for 3 days in no man's land till the valid date! Only time I have ever tried to brive, subtly in my veeery poor Russian, but the Kazakh chief was the only one honest there (the rest, bastards and corrupt). In the end, after several long attempts, he just stamped the passeport and let her in (only a kiss in his cheek in exchange, no kidding!).
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  #3  
Old 9 Jan 2012
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Originally Posted by pbekkerh View Post
Not on a motorbike but there was a man who got stuck and was living in a french airport for more than 10 years
This was actually someone without papers and who had been expelled from his own country (Iran) for his political views. That makes it a case very different from the average traveller.

It was a very bizarre story and the Tom Hanks movie "The Terminal" was loosely based on this man.


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Old 9 Jan 2012
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I met a Danish rider who had been stuck overnight in a Central American no-man's land due to his refusal to pay a bribe for entry. He and his partner tented overnight, but when he woke up he brushed at an itch on his head and was bitten by a scorpion! Furthermore, he was unable to convince the guards to expedite him through the border in order to get to a hospital.

I forget how it all ended, but I did see the photos: little scorpion, squashed flat--and he got a good story to tell at the pub in Colombia, where we met. Is there a moral to this story, aside from zipping the tent up securely at night?

Mark
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Old 10 Jan 2012
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I had a bit of trouble at the Kazakh-Russia border. My multi-entry Russia visa was somehow rendered invalid by a trip into Mongolia where the border officials stamped me out ON the visa instead of next to the visa in my passport. I went back into Russia by the same Mongolian border, so they must have overlooked their own mistake.
A few weeks later going from Kazakhstan to Russia, the Kazakh guards told me my visa was no good, but let me try anyways. The Russians, however, were adamant that I go back a thousand kilometers to Almaty to get a new Russian visa (even though there was only a day left on my Kazakh visa!). After hours of negotiations, they accepted that it was their own officials' fault and let me through.
I got run over by a Lada the next day...
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