Photo: A Thoroughly Befuddling Tent Tag


If you travel, without question you’ve had your share of experiences with “Chinglish,” or other corrupted forms of the English language. After all, there are books and websites devoted to this stuff. But while trekking in Bolivia last month, I discovered an entirely new form of linguistic weirdness, in the form of a tag on my (outfitter-supplied) tent.

It was a brand I’d never heard of, called Alpkit, and the tent had no information as to its origin. You can imagine my befuddlement upon reading this after a full day of trekking at 15,000 feet. I thought perhaps I was hallucinating.

Now that I’m home, I’ve discovered that Alpkit is a UK outfitter, and upon reviewing their site, I realize the above is entirely tongue-in-cheek. That doesn’t make it any less amusing. Here’s to more gear manufacturers having a sense of humor.

[Photo credit: Laurel Miller]

15 weird road signs from around the world

Travel around the world, and you’ll come across plenty of weird road signs that make the signs in the US seem downright boring. From the sign you see above (from South Africa), to signs warning about prostitutes, we’ve collected some of the funniest warnings from around the globe.

Got any others you’d like to share? Drop them in the links and we’ll include them in a future lineup!No smoking – for ANYONE

Probably a prank sign, but that doens’t make it any less funny.


A warning that will probably be ignored

That is one way to warn drivers not to go under the bridge if their vehicle is too high. Still, wanna bet the occassional driver tries anyway?


French speakers, turn left, Flemish speakers, turn right

The rivalry between the Flemish and the Walloons in Belgium can be pretty rough – This detour sends the French speakers to the left and the Flemish to the right. Seems downright mean to me.


Warning: deaf cat ahead

According to some forum posters, this is a real sign – warning about a deaf cat.


Aircraft have the right of way – yeah, no s**t!

No need to tell me this – if I’m driving down a road, and a plane wants to cross in front of me, I’ll always give them the right of way.


Translation please?

I can tell that this has something to do with camels – but what do they want us to do? Hit them? Avoid them?


Warning: prostitutes ahead!

I’m not sure whether this is an informational sign directing Italians to the prostitutes, or whether it is warning people not to hit them – but I doubt we’ll be seeing this sign in the US any time soon.


Pubic service announcement

Either a very good fake, or a council working too hard to warn people about the dangers lurking in the dark forests.


Never trust your GPS!

We did a little research on this one, and it appears to warn truck drivers not to use their GPS unit in the area. Most likely due to poor maps directing truck drives down a cliff or a road that is too narrow for their vehicles.


Redundant sign department

From the totally redundant department.


Another translation required

I’m sure this sign makes perfect sense. If you can read Chinese. Sadly, I can not, so to me it just seems to warn me about throwing things out of my car, but for all I know, it could be directing me to a local pub.


The vehicular dangers of the email auto-responder

This is a classic (and one that pops up a lot) – it is a sign from the UK in English and Welsh – but the Welsh translation is actually an auto-responder from the translation expert at the council offices saying: “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated“. Whoever sent the email got a reply back right away (of course) and assumed it was the correct translation.


Hope this is not illegal to ignore!

Presented without comment.


Farts can kill

Forest flatulence is dangerous!