When you travel – especially if you’re in a distant and unfamiliar place – it’s inevitable that sooner or later, things will happen that are beyond your control. You’re thrown a curveball and you’ve got to do your best to stay calm, be creative, and improvise. On this episode, I feature two stories from friends of mine who got caught in unexpected and frightening situations outside their comfort zones, where they had to navigate entirely new terrain and try their best to sort things out.

First we hear from Graham and Sarah Marsden about their 2010 trip to Syria on the eve of the Arab Spring. Graham is the founder of a travel company ironically called “Don’t Go Travel,” which promotes ethical and responsible tourism. He also hosts a podcast called “Don’t Go Unless,” where I was a guest a few months ago, discussing my trip to Cambodia.

Then, Donna Salter tells the story of how she ended up stranded on a little tiny boat in the middle of very big ocean. If you want to hear about another one of her adventures, hitching a ride across the ocean on a cargo ship, here’s an interview she did on the Global Travel Channel podcast.

(Music used in this episode includes Desert City, Balzan Groove - Vadodara, and Darkening Developments by Kevin MacLeod, which are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. (source: http://incompetech.com/), as well as Filastine – Judas Goat (feat. Hichman Enouiti), which was licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivs 3.0 license.)

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On Far From Home, award-winning public radio journalist Scott Gurian documents fascinating stories from far-flung places like Iran, Chernobyl, and Mongolia. For more info, visit farfromhomepodcast.org