I spent many of my formative years in business in the travel industry and have experienced many challenges along the way. I am always interested in the experiences of others. This is your chance to win a bottle of Piper Heidsieck champagne! Please e-mail me your amusing, or entertaining (preferably both) travel experiences and if I publish your story here I will send you a bottle of Piper. Please use the link to submit your story Travellers' Tale

Bribing a Border Guard!

September 1987, CheckPoint Charlie, Berlin. The Cold War is in its final throws and I'm visiting the city for the first time. A day trip to the East is an absolute must. So after taking the U Bahn to the closest stop to CheckPoint Charlie my friend and I take the short walk through no man's land to the Eastern side. The superficial glitz of West Berlin is quickly replaced by the drab uniformity of the East. Wide 6 lane boulevards groan under the weight of a solitary, distant Trabbie.

After an interesting day of not spending very much money we head back to the border. This was where the problems started. In the days of East Germany a foreign visitor would be expected to exchange around £8 in to Ostmarks (the local currency). When you returned to the West you would have to submit an "expense" return itemising how you had spent your money - proving that you weren't trying to smuggle Ostmarks out of the country. Upon entering the checkpoint I offered our expense returns to the guard with £12 worth of Ostmarks that we hadn't manged to spend. "You can't take Ostmarks with you" the border guard said in pretty good English. "We didn't spend it, so we are giving it to you" I replied as I pushed the currency across the counter towards him - assuming he realised I meant I was donating it to The State. He looked alarmed "You can't do this!"; "No, no we are very happy to" I replied enthusiastically. "I can not accept this - you must open a bank account". Open a bank account in East Germany - you must be mad, I thought. We were ushered back through the door we had just entered by and back in to East Berlin. It was a Saturday afternoon and we were stood in the middle of a high-rise East German housing estate with no sign of any shops - or life! I called to a border guard "where can I find a bank?", "Just follow the Wall". He meant the East side of the Berlin Wall. Unlike the Western side there was no graffiti to be seen, just a drab grey wall that encircled West Berlin. We walked for a few hundred yards and then, to our surprise, as we turned a corner a portacabin came in to view with the word Banken above the door. We walked in to find half a dozen Westerners queuing to deposit Ostmarks.

My story ended with me back in West Berlin, the bemused holder of an East German bank account - but at least I made it out without being arrested.