What is the scariest City you have traveled to?
Feb 14, 2008, 11:42 pm
#257
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Lake Oswego, Oregon or Costa Alegre take your pick
Programs: AS MVPG,
Posts: 1,066
Guatemala City 1980s
I still remember flying in and quickly/carefully exiting the airport and getting a cab to Antigua so I didn't get robbed. At that time tour buses where being held up at gun point intermittently. I still remember seeing open trucks full of "boys" in army uniforms all brandishing Ak-47s.
My mom and I had a rule at night in the "safe" tourist town of Antigua. If there were no women or children on that street get off that street. There were bullet holes in most of the walls of the city. We wrote off the gunshot noise at night to "celebrating" with firecrackers. Well maybe or maybe not. We still had a wonderful time and love Guatemala.
We will be in JNB in May.
My mom and I had a rule at night in the "safe" tourist town of Antigua. If there were no women or children on that street get off that street. There were bullet holes in most of the walls of the city. We wrote off the gunshot noise at night to "celebrating" with firecrackers. Well maybe or maybe not. We still had a wonderful time and love Guatemala.
We will be in JNB in May.
Last edited by ijkh; Feb 14, 2008 at 11:43 pm Reason: addition
Feb 15, 2008, 12:15 am
#259
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 237
I've been through a coup in the South Pacific and a few other dicey moments, and visited most of the non-US cities in this thread without feeling too ill-at-ease, but the city I've felt most uncomfortable in (by a country mile) is Ulaanbaatar.
Not scary as in worried for my life / health - but just so many pickpockets everywhere. I don't think I spoke to a single foreigner in my time there who hadn't been robbed or had an attempted robbery on them.
Not scary as in worried for my life / health - but just so many pickpockets everywhere. I don't think I spoke to a single foreigner in my time there who hadn't been robbed or had an attempted robbery on them.
Feb 16, 2008, 12:15 am
#263
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: HH DIAMOND, UA PREMIER
Posts: 88
Lima - My colleague and I went for a walk at 10 AM from our hotel, through the embassy district, trying to find the mall hotel reception said was nearby.
After seeing numerous young men hanging about on street corners, we turned back and had reception call us a taxi.
Cairo - I wasn't afraid I'd be attacked, but run over.
After seeing numerous young men hanging about on street corners, we turned back and had reception call us a taxi.
Cairo - I wasn't afraid I'd be attacked, but run over.
Feb 16, 2008, 12:32 am
#264
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: AA EXP, 1 MM, AC, HH Diamond, Marriott Silver, Hertz 5*
Posts: 4,010
Lagos, Nigeria, where guys with big guns went with us any time we left the hotel compound. And it's hard to tell who the crooks are, since some of them are wearing police uniforms and trying to shake you down.
Feb 16, 2008, 1:33 am
#265
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Danville, CA, USA;
Programs: UA 1MM, WN CP, Marriott LT Plat, Hilton Gold, IC Plat
Posts: 15,716
Romania during the Ceaucescu era (c1988). I was taken in by some students and stayed with them for a few nights. I wanted to take pictures of the bare shelves in the super market but was advised not to do so. TV was limited to 2 hours a night (1 channel) with one hour devoted to the president. I never felt physically at risk, but you could see that it was the type of place where you could simply disappear and nobody would be able to find you.
Most big cities in the US have good and bad areas. NYC, LA, DC even here in SF are good examples. I never feel threatened when I visit any of them. Then again I have been to Harlem at night, ridden the NY subway at 4am, walked through Watts to go to a Raiders game, and visited some of the more transitional parts of DC at 2am. I guess that was risky but I didn't perceive any. The scariest travel experience was riding in a cab in Philly where the driver was on PCP.
Most big cities in the US have good and bad areas. NYC, LA, DC even here in SF are good examples. I never feel threatened when I visit any of them. Then again I have been to Harlem at night, ridden the NY subway at 4am, walked through Watts to go to a Raiders game, and visited some of the more transitional parts of DC at 2am. I guess that was risky but I didn't perceive any. The scariest travel experience was riding in a cab in Philly where the driver was on PCP.
Feb 16, 2008, 6:50 am
#266
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: GVA
Programs: LH KL PC
Posts: 393
The only place I've not felt at ease at all was downtown Detroit. What a pit, even though nothing happened to me.
Other not-so-nice experiences were taking the wrong highway exit in Philadelphia and Miami. DC was also dodgy.
The only place that I know of were I could have become another mugging statistic was Amsterdam but I was able to run away from the guys. Two friends got robbed with a knife another time we were there, but I wasn't with them at that moment.
NY and Chicago, never felt threatened in any way. Same goes for Bangkok, Hanoi and Saigon where I felt very comfortable.
Other not-so-nice experiences were taking the wrong highway exit in Philadelphia and Miami. DC was also dodgy.
The only place that I know of were I could have become another mugging statistic was Amsterdam but I was able to run away from the guys. Two friends got robbed with a knife another time we were there, but I wasn't with them at that moment.
NY and Chicago, never felt threatened in any way. Same goes for Bangkok, Hanoi and Saigon where I felt very comfortable.
Feb 16, 2008, 3:22 pm
#267
Join Date: Dec 2006
Programs: American, British Airways, Lufthansa, Northwest, US Air
Posts: 69
I thought I would never be more scared than in a taxi outside of Dusseldorf at night. The speeds we were traveling were not to be believed. But then I had another cab ride the next night. Same uneblievable speeds, in the dark, but add in ice and freezing rain!
Feb 21, 2008, 3:58 pm
#269
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Live: HVN -- Work: The World
Programs: DL - exPlat (now Gold) ; AB - Gold ; TK - Gold; BMI - exGold; US - exChairman ; UA-ex1K; NW-exGold
Posts: 1,248
Basrah, Iraq.................you know the brochure said the war was officially over. Apparently no one told the folks hiding out with AK-47s and RPGs.
Other than that, having covered war, riots and natural disaster, I would have to say New Orleans, in the Lower 9th Ward about 8 days after Hurricane Karina when the gangs started to move back in.
-Fish
Other than that, having covered war, riots and natural disaster, I would have to say New Orleans, in the Lower 9th Ward about 8 days after Hurricane Karina when the gangs started to move back in.
-Fish
Feb 21, 2008, 6:47 pm
#270
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: BOS
Programs: DL, B6
Posts: 251
Naples, Italy. My wife and I saw three 50-something men pick up a woman that had to be at least 85 years old, and 85 lbs. dripping wet, off her feet and slam her into the side of a packed bus because she had the audacity to get off before the throngs we were with on the route from Chiaia to Centrale station could pack it in. Um, we took the next one... and got ourselves to Rome later that day. And, that was the morning after getting eyeballed on a deserted commuter train at 11 pm by two menacing gents, only to get off in a suburban station during a taxi strike. The wistful sheen of my visions of my father's family's homeland has, needless to say, worn off.