What was the greatest act of kindness done to you while travelling?

I was in my home state escaping Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed 70 percent of my home, and an elderly couple,stangers at the time gave us their mothers home to live in for a month, and treated us so well,We are lifelong friends now.The first Sunday I went to church after that I heard the gospel that asked"When was I a stranger and you took me in?"That is so significant a passage for me.

I'm glad to tell you my story at last about what happened back some 40 years ago in northern England.

I was driving past and out of a small rural village on a cold windy day with occasional snow flakes. Then an old man apparently a farmer was walking toward the village, I stopped and asked him the direction, he gladly directed me to the address. But I failed to find it and turned back to the village after some 20 or 30 minutes later. Surprisingly the old man was standing in the cold wind at the same place with his head buried in the shoulders. I stopped again curiously enough. He said " I'm sorry for giving you wrong directions". and kindly redirected me back. As I was in a hurry, I thanked him for his kindness rather perfunctorily. But as time elapsed, his honesty seeped deeper and deeper into my mind. This has become the utmost precious experience of my life. Incidentally I (a Japanese)was in late-twenties at that time. Let me thank the old English man for his kindness and sincerity from the bottom of my heart!

JAPAN: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

1. Best: I passed out dead drunk inside of a castle--a museum but one you can easily get into if you want to. So me and a few friends after missing the lastNo train bought a sixer and slept in on the dirt inside the gates of 400 year old castle. I make it home hung over and feeling dumb, and realized I had lost most wallet. I had been barhopping all night and slept in the park, but I went to the police station, the nearest I could find (about 1km away) and everything was there, $300, license, credit cards. There were several kind people involved and this incident always reminds me to hold judgement on someone who seems like a prick here in Japan.

2. Worst: The best incident involved several very kind men and women with a badge, and now the darker side. I drove with an international license. It was still valid (not 10 years old or anything). I had a job interview (I got hired thankfully, but this incident didn't help) and as I was leaving I scratched another car backing out. I went back inside and told the, also phoned my wife. It would have cost definitely less than $100 to fix so I offered to pay her, $200 in cash on the spot, but my wife and her, and my employer, were all like "Don't be silly, lets just call the police!" I had hear horror stories.

I was arrested right there on the spot, spend 8 hours being interrrogated, filling out forms, got finger printed and mug shotted, And I wrote an 8 page explanantion/apology in Japanese and English (My Japanese was basic at the time, but I tried.)

The cop was like any of those cops from south you see during the days of segregation. Mean, insinuating I was doing something illegal, and going on that I was lying. But the worst parts were spending sometimes an hour in the concrete room while he said nothing, and went out to do something. I think he was just bored. My wife was sobbing becuase she had never been in that situation. And he spoke of being deported/jail time. etc. To this day, I don't know why. I guess it was just fun for him to mess with my head.

Late in the evening, I guess his shift was up, he read my confession and seemed satisfied but left it in the open. "Ww MIGHT come visit you again on of these days."

As*hole. He was just bored. I would talk with him for a few minutes, and then he would walk out to the main office where the other cops were and relay what we talked about, and all the other cops ooohhhed and ahhhed and laughed. I could hear him making fun of my stuttering style of Japanese( a beginner at the time)

Sorry for a long story, its just catharsis for me! Good god that was a horrible and yet most Japanese people have a soul as pure as the driven snow, hence the wallet.

best: there's no mailbox for outgoing mail in Heartsfield-Atlanta, the delta airline staff took them to the unsecure area for me to mail my postcards, that was nice!