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Which countries have you traveled to where you felt the least safe in?

Which countries have you traveled to where you felt the least safe in?

Old Feb 22, 2016, 5:55 pm
  #91  
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
HUH? In Thailand, they speak Thai. Vietnamese is spoken in Vietnam. Or am I missing something here?
You are simply witnessing an overworked, sleepy penguin. Oops.
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Old Feb 22, 2016, 6:47 pm
  #92  
 
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Mainland Honduras wins the sketchy vibe award for me.
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Old Feb 22, 2016, 9:52 pm
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Originally Posted by Jasper2009
Would you mind elaborating? Certain parts of Edmonton (and possibly Ottawa) at night I could see, but Vctoria?
Victoria? Ottawa? Edmonton? Pfft. I can't think of any city that's completely safe for travel, but these are the types of places where you'd have to go looking for trouble, or be very unlucky, to find oneself in personal danger.
I travel frequently to work in small towns in northern Alberta, and many of these have a far rougher and more dangerous vibe than most of the metropolises to which I've traveled. I routinely receive insults and scowls, had my truck door kicked in in one village (pop: 750), and a colleague had to wait for a police escort after court because of threats of 'retribution' in another. I love my job and the area, though, and don't let that deter me.
In Canada: Inuvik is uncomfortable. Hay River is shady. Tuktoyaktuk is scary.
I've never had a problem in Nassau, but don't go out after dark.
I was followed by two creepy men while walking around a suburb in Broward County -- the only time I've felt unsafe in the U.S. (and, yes, that includes a few trips to Oakland).
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Old Feb 22, 2016, 10:37 pm
  #94  
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Originally Posted by Dieuwer
Try getting a cab by walking up...
What would happen? Yes, you will be scammed (especially if you are in Phuket), but this is well known fact.

Last edited by invisible; Feb 23, 2016 at 1:07 am
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Old Feb 23, 2016, 1:51 am
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Of the 117 planets I have visited so far (in as many galaxies), I find Earth to be the most dangerous of all...
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Old Feb 23, 2016, 3:02 am
  #96  
 
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Saudi Arabia and Iraq
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Old Feb 23, 2016, 4:47 am
  #97  
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Originally Posted by Dieuwer
After that incident, I refused to pay for any public transport service in Poland and recouped my $10.
Assuming that inter-city public transport would not cost more than $0.50, so did you decided to purposely take bus 20 times without ticket to recoup that $10? Just want to know how it was accomplished.
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Old Feb 23, 2016, 5:00 am
  #98  
 
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Originally Posted by ironmanjt
That said, in 191 countries visited [...]
191?! Wow.

Mobile doesn't show if you have a blog listed, but this would mean you are short only 15 countries/territories by generous counting. Which makes me wonder what those missing would be.
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Old Feb 23, 2016, 5:23 am
  #99  
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Difficult to pinpoint entire countries. There are certainly very volatile areas that I've visited, but every country has (IME) safe and unsafe feeling areas.

In Pakistan, the NWFP felt extremely volatile, but (at the time) the Swat Valley and Murree couldn't have been more laid back.

In the Philippines, parts of Manila were extremely full-on (had every scam in the book attempted on me - including from people who turned out to be genuine police officers). But a short journey away to Tagaytay or Bohol, and it was just lovely.

The Russian Caucasus was a real mix in itself - some extremely tense areas down south, but couldn't have felt more warmly welcomed in Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk.

Never had a problem in India (though I appreciate it's different for women) other than that feeling of "for pity's sake, will you just quote me a reasonable if slightly inflated price and stick to it?"

I can appreciate the reaction to the UK's drinking culture. There's an awful lot of places, at an awful lot of times of the day/week, where the undercurrent of casual violence bubbles over.
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Old Feb 23, 2016, 8:35 am
  #100  
 
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26y female with 40 countries mostly solo 6/7 continents

Mumbai the other week was the first time I really felt unsafe, I like to see where people live when I'm in bigger cities so have inevitably wandered into some sketchy neighbourhoods, sometimes get lost and even followed but common sense takes over in these situations.

Mumbai was the worst, a conveniently broken lock in my room meant sleeping with one eye open making sure my makeshift barricade would repel staffs attempts to get in, when I would get out of there onto the street it wasn't any better, footpaths non existent, risking death to cross the road and constant hassling made me question a lot about tourism altogether. Soon as I got wifi I packed it in a booked a flight out of there.

Generally I have found areas around the lesser bus/train stations of cities to be most dodgy, Brussels being the most intimidating with many single men just loitering on the street, Dublin's connolly station isn't the most wholesome area likewise with the one at Tel Aviv I went through.
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Old Feb 23, 2016, 9:15 am
  #101  
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Originally Posted by davidcalgary29
Victoria? Ottawa? Edmonton? Pfft. I can't think of any city that's completely safe for travel, but these are the types of places where you'd have to go looking for trouble, or be very unlucky, to find oneself in personal danger.
I travel frequently to work in small towns in northern Alberta, and many of these have a far rougher and more dangerous vibe than most of the metropolises to which I've traveled. I routinely receive insults and scowls, had my truck door kicked in in one village (pop: 750), and a colleague had to wait for a police escort after court because of threats of 'retribution' in another. I love my job and the area, though, and don't let that deter me.
In Canada: Inuvik is uncomfortable. Hay River is shady. Tuktoyaktuk is scary.
I've never had a problem in Nassau, but don't go out after dark.
I was followed by two creepy men while walking around a suburb in Broward County -- the only time I've felt unsafe in the U.S. (and, yes, that includes a few trips to Oakland).
I've been told that the North Dakota oil patch is dangerous.
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Old Feb 23, 2016, 12:13 pm
  #102  
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I was in Northern Ireland back in the early 90's. At the time, the IRA and the PPM's were busy bombing towns and machine gunning each other. I was in Omagh days before the high street was destroyed by a bomb.

There was a constant awareness of potential death and injury each time you were in a public place. I had to evacuate a restaurant because a woman forgot her purse and it was reported as bomb. Dogs, random checkpoints, hovering helicopters, bomb robots..and everyone trying to find out what side I was on. It was edgy.
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Old Feb 23, 2016, 12:39 pm
  #103  
 
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Haiti. Was there for work and will never go there again.
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Old Feb 23, 2016, 12:40 pm
  #104  
 
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Originally Posted by R.A.
Saudi Arabia and Iraq
I don't think IRAQ counts. War zone.
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Old Feb 23, 2016, 2:47 pm
  #105  
 
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Originally Posted by gpia
191?! Wow.

Mobile doesn't show if you have a blog listed, but this would mean you are short only 15 countries/territories by generous counting. Which makes me wonder what those missing would be.
5 actually by UN standards: Mali, Mauritania, Tuvalu, Turkmenistan, and Iceland.....

...and I think it's ok to link to the blog www.jasonaroundtheworld.com
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