I’m the type of person who has always gotten excited about backpacks, packing lists, and the idea of traveling the world alone. As a 27-year-old woman with no partner or kids, it’s a prime time!

However, my most recent solo trip (and first one traveling to a country where I didn’t speak the native language) was a disaster.

Earlier this month, I traveled to Thailand. I was meeting with a travel group when I got there, but my flights there and back were solo. I had it all planned out—a layover in Zurich, a layover in Mumbai, no checked bags. I was extremely prepared.

Then, I got food poisoning at my home base airport and threw up on the entire flight to Zurich. When I got to Zurich, I was so weak and dehydrated that I ended up going to their medical center. This caused me to miss my flight to Mumbai. I then rebooked with Oman Air, and that flight was cancelled. I had to stay in a hotel room that night.

At this point, I had no control over the situation, but I was upset to be missing out on the whole group meeting. I hated that I’d be the one person who was there a few days late. (The group was around 20 people).

I was able to get a flight through Singapore by the skin of my teeth. I thought things were starting to fall into place until I landed in Thailand and found out that BOTH phones I had brought were “locked” and unable to use SIMs or eSIMs, so I had no data. My first time in a country where I didn’t speak the language, and I was alone and had no idea how to get to my hostel or anything. I took the first cab I saw, which was super overpriced.

When I got to the hostel, I realized I had left my new iPhone 14 Pro in the cab. At that point, I broke down and sobbed on the floor of the hostel’s office. LUCKILY the cab driver brought it back to me, and I was so happy I hugged the cute British guy who had been consoling me, whose number/info I regrettably did not get.

Things were looking up, right! Wrong! I soon found myself throwing up again, feeling weak and weird and begging to go to a hospital. As much as I tried to hydrate, it just wasn’t working. So, I got taken in an ambulance to a Thai hospital, which was just an open pavilion building with a small ER room and stray dogs sitting around it. The language barrier proved incredibly difficult (I later learned you can download languages for offline use with Google Translate, but hindsight is 20/20). I told the doctor not to give me medicine, and just to give me an IV and a blood test. I was given a medicine that had a very bad interaction with my antidepressants (I told the doctor I was on them) and my heart rate went up to 170 BPM. They had to wheel me to the “critical” section of the room and put me on an EKG with an oxygen tube. It was traumatizing.

Finally, when I felt better and was discharged, it was late at night. Due to my lack of phone service, I had no way to contact a cab to get back to my hostel, and the women at the desk had no interest in helping me. After begging in tears, they finally called me a cab, and the cab driver spoke no English, so getting back to my hostel was quite difficult.

Once I did finally get back to my hostel, the power went out for a few hours, which is never ideal in Thailand. I only slept a few hours. The next morning, I was picked up and shuttled to the group I was supposed to meet with from the beginning.

Once I was with the group, things were a little better. I did get a sinus infection, though, which wasn’t great. I had some good moments, but I was just exhausted and wondering if the trip was just a big waste of money. On the second-to-last day, I rode on the back of a scootie and fell off on a gravel road, which left me with big gashes in my knee and hand. I took a 1000 baht cab ride back to my hotel, which was a bit on the expensive side. On the last day, I got bad sunburn.

It didn’t end there, though. I had long layovers in both Bangkok and Seoul, so I was planning on leaving the airports. However, due to my track record, I decided to just spend the eight hours each in the airports, walking around and going to souvenir shops. I didn’t realize that the Incheon Airport isn’t actually the best for roaming around and buying souvenirs, and all of the good food places were closed, so I didn’t have much fun there, either.

I was pretty stupid and booked a return trip with three layovers (BKK, ICN, and LAX). My time at LAX wasn’t great either, but I was in the home stretch! I was so happy to finally be on my last plane home. Then, the guy behind me stopped breathing and we had to make an emergency landing in Phoenix. Since the Superbowl had just happened there the night before, it took us three hours to take off again. By the time I got to my home airport, I had missed my ride opportunity and had to take a train and uber home. AND, to top it all off, when I got home, I was locked out.

After all of this, I lost ten pounds I did not intend to lose, I have to see a gastroenterologist and cardiologist as advised by my doctor, and my knee is still healing. I’m also crossing my fingers that I get even half of the money back that I lost (will Nationwide be on my side?).

I fear that whole ordeal has ruined my love of traveling, which was such a big part of me. Even with the issues I had with past trips, I still could look past them and enjoy the greater picture. This time, I don’t know if I’ll be able to recover.

Tl;dr: I had an awful trip to Thailand where I was hospitalized twice and had a myriad of other things go wrong, and now I wonder if I'll ever get over the trauma and be able to travel solo again.