My Biggest Embarrassment of 2015 – The Untold Story

There is a story from 2015 that I never mentioned in my blog because I was too embarrassed. But what good is a travel blog if it doesn’t include the juicy details. So here my biggest embarrassment of 2015.

On June 8th, I arrived back in London after spending five weeks in Edinburgh. I had scheduled to explore London for five days before my flight to Pula, Croatia. On June 10th, the day started off as any other. I had stayed at the Smart Hyde Park Inn Hostel (the cheapest hostel in town at £10 a night) and then rented a bike for £2. If you didn’t know, bikes are by far the cheapest way to get around London! The first 30 minutes are free, so you just keep picking up another bike every 25 minutes, and you only pay £2 for 24 hours.

I first explored Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Even though it was my third time in London, I had never really been around the parks, and there are kilometers of trails to explore. From there I rode through the Wellington Arch and Green Park to see Buckingham Palace, where I was fortunate enough to witness the Changing of the Guard and a cannon salute for Prince Phillip’s Birthday.

Next was Trafalgar square and a lunch from Boots. That’s where disaster struck. I purchased my jumbo sandwich, crisps and drink from Boots for £3.89 (cheapest lunch in London, by far!) and ate on the steps of the National Gallery. I finished up, deposited my rubbish in the bin and went to relieve myself in the loo beneath the giant blue rooster. Blue rooster?! Yep. Maybe I should have taken that as an omen.

I finished my duty and as I leaned over to flush, my wonderful Samsung Galaxy S4 phone fell out of my jacket pocket and…

I grabbed it instantly and ran to get towels to clean and dry it off with.

I took out the battery.

I put it in rice for a week.

I tried to get it fixed in London, but they said the water damage voided the warranty. Not that it would have mattered, as my two-year warranty had expired the week before!

I tried to get it repaired in Albania but they said the phone was fried. Finally, I tried to repair it in Thailand but their diagnosis was that the screen was damaged, and the cost to repair the screen was the same as replacing the whole phone, which is now discontinued.

For the rest of year, I said I had dropped my phone in water, but I could never bring myself to tell exactly where that water was and what else was in the water…

Eight months later, I still have no working phone.

The moral of this story is, if you’re wearing a Kangatek bag or have a purse, keep your phone secure in it. Leaving it in an open pocket in your jacket leaves it open to pickpockets and nasty drops.