You know how to be a respectful traveler already: Learn the local language, follow regional customs, be polite to a fault. But some people don't always follow those rules—and take rude travel behavior to a whole other level.
1. Don’t: Take naked selfies at Angkor Wat
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Just last month, Lindsey and Leslie Adams, two sisters from Arizona, were arrested for taking nude selfies at Angkor Wat. The pair were inside the Preah Khan temple when they pulled down their pants and photographed their buttocks. Besides the arrest, they were also fined $250 apiece, deported and banned from returning to Cambodia for four years. Sadly, they weren’t the first to do so: Three French tourists were arrested in January after they were caught taking naked pictures inside the same temple, and faced the same consequences.
2. Don’t: Film “home movies” in front of historic landmarks.
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Last year, two Russian tourists shot a raunchy, ten-minute video near the 4,500 year-old Giza pyramids and uploaded it to the internet. According to an official statement made by Egypt’s Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damati: “A set of sexually explicit scenes was illegally filmed inside the Giza Necropolis by a foreign tourist, while visiting the site.” In response to the incident, critics have called upon on the Egyptian government to enhance security at the historic site in order to prevent tourist behaviors that are “demeaning to Egyptian civilization.”
3. Don’t: Take your pig on a plane.
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Last year, a woman was kicked off a plane after she brought her brought her 80-pound pig on a flight from Connecticut to Washington. According to passenger reports, the pig not-so-shockingly stunk up the cabin, left porcine deposits in the aisle, and began howling wildly. The woman defended the pig as an “emotional support animal”—the Department of Transportation allows persons with disabilities to travel with service animals—but in this case, the passenger did not qualify as disabled and her animal was deemed disruptive.
4. Don’t: Throw orgies in your Airbnb rental.
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Last year, New Yorker Ari Teman rented out his Chelsea home to David Carter for the weekend—allegedly to host his in-laws in town for a wedding. Little did Teman know, Carter had arranged for a raunchy, overweight-persons-only soiree at Teman’s house, that resulted in $23,817 worth of damages. As a result, Carter was permanently removed from the website and was dealt with by law enforcement, according to Airbnb.
See more travel tips to stay on your best behavior.
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