BootsnAll Travel Community

When we travel surely we must overhear other travellers/tourists say something just completely crazy/funny or mad...

One example that springs to mind is when i was in Gullivers in Sukhimvit in BKK, and an aussie bloke had just finished a game of pool and duly told his mates he was "off to give birth to an englishman" and headed to the lavatory. Now i am english and was not offended i just burst out laughing really loud....also the Finnish girl i dated in Thailand kept saying motherf"cker every damn time at everything.......

The English don't say MFer??

It's really widespread in the US.

Are the bears with collars tame?

I saw an animal on the way to Banff today - could you tell me what it was?

Tourist in PEI: Do you live here year round?

Tourist in Vancouver: I want to go to Niagara Falls for the afternoon, where can I rent a car?

What's the best way to see Canada in a day?

Tourist in Alberta: When we enter B.C. do we have to convert our money to British pounds?

So it's eight kilometres away... is that in miles?

From a tourist who didn't see any ... : "When do you let the animals out?"


This is perhaps not what you meant but I do love eavesdropping on tourists. There is so often a stupid/funny question asked.

haha...
I really have to wonder how people manage to leave their own country without ever having looked at a globe, or any kind of world map for that matter.

too funny.

Of course, most Canadians have by now heard the (what I've been told is becoming an urban legend) story of Americans stopping at a gas station just north of the border, in July, in a car with skis on the roof, asking 'how far til the snow?'

I've had british travellers (jokingly) call me a plum, the first time I heard it I thought I must have heard wrong.

Well what does it mean? The plum thing?

In small thai resteraunt in my neighborhood:
"Drunk noodles and shit-take?! What the hell kind of place is this?!"
She sounded very southern.

we took a hike with a guide through a rainforest in costa rica and she told us that once a tourist (lawyer from the u.s.) actually asked her "how they water it." hmmmm ...

quote:

Originally posted by jedimasterbooboo:
Well what does it mean? The plum thing?

It's one of those words that can mean a lot of different things. When these guys called me it, they were meaning I was stupid, a dork, gay, but most of all it meant I was an "ignorant native"-they were visiting Canada, and they considered our ways very backwards here.

All in fun though.

OK OK I've got one. When I used to live in the Virgin Islands I had a friend who worked on a day charter and he told me that one day a lady came on board with some empty water bottles which he thought nothing of. Later as she was filling her bottles she was stumped as to why the water was no longer blue when she collected it in her bottles? That is one of my favorits.

As far as sayings, when I was in SA this fall a couple of favorites was these Australians would say " That's a big feather in my cap" whenever something good would happen and anything bad that happened was a "Big Black Eye".
These English lads I met had crazy mustaches and beards going and whenever someone suggested they grow sideburns, they would promptly and politely say "no bugger grips here". I have ideas but have yet to figure that one out entirely.
A clue in please.

basically they were saying they did not want to look like they were auditioning for the vilage people. i think they meant bugger as in buggering as in being akin to being a homosexual and grips as in something to hold onto.

Thats my take on it, i am british and i have never heard that saying........i also have a nice pair of sideburns going on....

skiing in vail this spring (when everyone from europe and south america visits) i overheard several comments about the number of non-english speakers, but my favorite was a southern lady who looked at her husband with a deadly serious look on her face and asked, "are you sure we're still in america?" to which i replied with uncontrolable laughter. i then assured her that colorado is still part of the lower 48 states...

guy who used to be a cop in nottingham england told us he refuses to prouncounce "crossaint" antying but "croy-cent" cuz he does not deign speak french!

lol...that is funny!!

I am not in the least bit surprised at that Zopa....

Since I deal with tourists alot I've got tons of them. I'm pretty sure of the nationalities of those that said them.

What time do they turn the electricity off? (German)

I really wanted to go to Newfoundland, but they told me I had to take a car Ferry and I'm driving a truck. (American)

Tourist: Do you have grizzly bears here?
Me: No sir, just black bears.
Tourist: Can you play with them?
(Australian)

Tourist: Is that a Bald Eagle? (it was on the roof a nearby building)
Me: Nope, that's a seagull.
(American)

Can you phone Texas from here? (American)

I want to catch some lobster. What type of rod do I need. (Canadian)

and my favorite...

Dog meat! I don't want any dog meat. (My cousin after being asked if he wanted white meat or dark meat in Louisianna)


OH...I could go on and on.

quote:

Originally posted by Libby:

OH...I could go on and on.

Please do!

Here are a few more that stick out.

Tourist: Can I cash travellers cheques here?
Me: I'm sorry, no.
Tourist: Why not?
Me: Because we're a library.
(English)

Is there anywhere around here that offers Moose rides?
(Canadian or American..not sure)

Why is everything in Canadian dollars? (American)

Where am I? (Very common question, asked by almost all nationalities)

Tourist: You sure do have a lot of water around here.
My Friend: That's why they call us an Island.
(Unknown origin)

Tourist: Why do they call it Nova Scotia?
Me: Because it looks alot like Scotland.
Tourist: What does Scotland have to do with it?
(American)

Do you have cows here?(Canadian)

Is it illegal to eat road kill? (Southern woman, not sure where from)

And from when I worked in Jasper National Park many years ago:

"..do you have liquor stores in the park??" - from an American Tourist

".. do you think that its warm enough to wear shorts in August??" -- yeah, it can get into the 30's some times in the summer!

"How much does that mountain weigh??" ... umm, with trees or without trees?

And my favorite: "..what time does the park close??"

..I just picture this tired warden at the end of a long day standing at the park gates with a flashlight rushing everyone out like its a movie theatre or something "...c'mon c'mon.. lets go! .. I want to go home.."

Also - mentioned above: "How do you get the rivers so green & blue??" Well.. in October, we turn off the water and paint the..

I heard rumour that there used to be a book of "Stupid Tourist Questions" at the Columbia Icefields Info centre and Interpreters could put anything into that book - so long as it was genuinely asked. What I'd do to get a look at that book!

A friend told me about this one, I hope you love it as much as I.

My friend Jed was at Tikal in Guatamala. He was so excited for he and his buddy were the only ones there, a rare occasion. It was pretty early in the morning and all you could hear were some birds in the distance, it was misty and just as he was getting ready to ascend the steps, which are pretty steep, to reach the top of one of the temples he hears this thick southern male voice say to his wife. "Watch you're step, don't fall honey, there is no one to sue here" !

I also used to work for a rafting company and a real common question when we would reach the take out was "How come we are not were we started"
How do you explain to someone with a straight face that rivers are not just one big circle.

I work at a ski resort with alot of Brazilians and they get so tired of being asked where they are from only to be responded to with people trying out there broken spanish on them.

quote:

Dog meat! I don't want any dog meat. (My cousin after being asked if he wanted white meat or dark meat in Louisianna)

LOL. That's a good one. I'm originally from Louisiana and I could see that being confused. My favorite Louisiana phrase. "Ya'll come back now, ya' here?" I laugh whenever anyone says this, especially my Dad pretending to be a Cajun. lol.