When Things Go Wrong

by Colin Wright
on December 15th, 2011
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I’m sitting in my second taxi cab of the day, doing my best not to hit my head on the lower-than-usual interior and trying (with much futility) to unfurrow my brow.

The only thing keeping my head up is a heap of frustration, a dash of anger and a dose of Red Bull. I’ve just been kicked off a train with two friends who are visiting me from overseas, and our travel plans have been abruptly cancelled, leaving us with a double-handful of phone call rain checks to take and about 12,000 rupees less in our pockets.

Did I mention that we likely won’t be getting our money back? I feel like that’s important.

Actually, what’s really important above and beyond all the details is the fact that everything that could go wrong, went wrong. After weeks of planning, money spent and sleep lost in an effort to arrange the perfect cross-country train trip, it all came crumbling around our heads with little fanfare but much gnashing of teeth.

I take a deep breath, focus my eyes (to keep them from closing) and tell myself I’ll get everything sorted after we get back to my flat and have a few hours of sleep.

Things go wrong every day, and though it can be irritating, it seems that when things go wrong while you’re traveling, each little paper cut becomes a decapitation; destroying your plans, your cool-temper and your life (for the moment, at least).

The combination of being in an unfamiliar place, spending a good deal of money and aspiring to undertake epic adventures in one of the rare moments you have to yourself (away from work and the everyday grind) is enough to coil anyone up into a tense spring of potential energy, and all it takes is one little bit of friction to light up a spark that can blow the whole thing to bits.

In fact, there’s even a name for this: Paris Syndrome.

This syndrome is seen most often in Japanese tourists who vacation in Paris, France. After years of dreaming about the perfect vacation — the Eiffel tower, the sunsets, the croissants, the art — they finally arrive in the city with aspirations of idealism, and generally find that the real thing doesn’t live up to the hype. This can lead to a myriad of psychological symptoms, ranging from anxiety to suicidal thoughts.

This isn’t to say that Paris is bad and making these people depressed, but the idealized vision they had of how the city would be, and how they would interact with the city, turned out to be less than perfect. The buildup leading to their trip, combined with exhaustion and unfamiliar territory is what brings about the different mental effects.

And this isn’t limited to Japanese folk visiting France. A brand of Paris Syndrome can overtake anyone who hits the road with visions of adventure and epic experiences that don’t come to pass. There are, however, a few things you can do to make sure that you don’t fall prey to this debilitating trend and still get the most out of your trip possible.

First, try not to plan every moment of every day.

For most people, the stress of travel is directing correlated with how much of their trip is planned out. If you have each hour accounted for, you have a lot of opportunities for things to go wrong. If you have a general framework instead, though, you’ll find that you’re much more capable of rolling with the punches and taking opportunities as they arise.

This also means you’re much less likely to freak out about overlooking some portion of the agenda…if something better comes long beforehand, why would you complain about not adhering to the schedule?

Second, remember that travel advertising is idealized.

The strange thing is that it’s generally underwhelming in terms of showing the actual potential-awesomeness you can experience while traveling, but it does tend to focus on making everything seem pristine and perfect…much different from the real life you live day-to-day.

Do not expect all of your problems to go away simply because you’ve changed locations, and do not expect the place you visit not to have the same day-to-day issues. If you can get past this, though, you will be much more capable of seeing all the good (and generally unadvertised) benefits of wherever it is you visit, which is the real fun stuff anyway.

Finally, look at hurdles thrown in your path as opportunities.

Our train trip was ruined, sure, but it gave us the opportunity to reevaluate our plans. If we aren’t on the other side of the country tomorrow, what will we do instead? Can we reschedule the trip, and partake in some local adventures until then? Is this really the end of the world?

For us, it turned out that it wasn’t. We made new plans with new people, and the plans we had previously made we rescheduled for a week later, a time that made more sense for everyone anyway. After a few minutes of clear thinking, we had a new plan to get excited about.

Don’t get pulled down by Paris Syndrome, Bangkok Syndrome, New York Syndrome, or any other syndrome that is ready to ruin your trip. Stay flexible, be realistic and view hurdles as launchpads, and you’ll be just fine.

Colin Wright

Colin Wright is a minimalist, branding expert and serial entrepreneur. While running his blog Exile Lifestyle ,his branding studio Colin Is My Name and his e-publishing business ebookling. Colin travels the world (moving to a new country every 4 months), meeting up with amazing people, giving talks (to audiences ranging from tech industry professionals to college students to Catholic school girls) and hunting down new and interesting experiences.