Malaysians unite over 'craziest' travel experiences on Twitter

Puteri Nuraaina's tweet immediately went viral, with many people replying with their wildest travel experiences.

A young woman and her mother backpacked across Australia for two weeks because they were cheated by an unscrupulous travel agency.

Elsewhere, a boy became stranded on an empty street in the wee hours of the morning because he had taken the wrong bus to Kuala Lipis (Pahang), instead of Kuala Lumpur.

Then there's the sulking wife who left her husband behind at home after a heated argument and travelled to northern Malaysia with her toddler child in tow, just to let off steam. She was then stuck in an eight-hour traffic jam along the highway on the drive back home to KL.

The aforementioned scenarios are just some of the zaniest road trip tales that were shared by Malaysians on Twitter recently.

And it all started with a relatively unassuming tweet from Puteri Nuraaina Balqis Mohd Asri, also known by her Twitter handle @ayyputeri.

On July 19, the 26-year-old media executive from Taiping, Perak, posted the following tweet:

Coping mechanism

On the reason behind her tweet going viral, Puteri Nuraaina thinks it's because it triggered the suppressed wanderlust among people amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Since we can't travel these days, perhaps reminiscing past travel experiences puts us in a good mood. And to some point, (we) hope that we can travel again soon," she says, adding that many would have had good memories despite their travel mishaps.

Some people share about how they got lost during their road trip. — JULENTTO PHOTOGRAPHY/Unsplash

In this period when Malaysians can't travel, Puteri Nuraaina believes that sharing their past travel stories can help people cope with being stuck at home.

I think it does serve as a coping mechanism. It was a good time for a lot of people, and road trips are all special in their own way," she says.