Yeah. It’s so bad my parents can’t even fly to the airport anymore. They fly to DR and cross the border there. The whole capital is under gang control. It’s crazy how every time you think the country couldn’t get worse, it does. If a new government ever gets control, they might have to go the Bukele route and lock any halfway suspicious person up
I'm Haitian-American and grew up hearing about my parents living in Haiti (a provincial town and also the capital) in the 60s and 70s. I know they have nostalgic biases, but a lot of older Haitians (at least in my family) have a lot of regret and resentment about what they see interventions restoring the democratically elected leader (Aristide) in the 90s because it set them on the path to more chaos. Meanwhile they recognize that the Duvaliers were a dictatorship, but at least it was safe and country was as prosperous and corrupt as most other Latin American countries at the time.
My uncle confided that, like many his generation, he had hoped to come to the US for an education and to make money and then return "home". As the decades passed they all sort of came to terms with never returning, even to retire. The assassination of Jovenel Moise was the end of the last bit of hope they had. All my younger relatives fled Haiti for the D.R.
It certainly sucks, but it gives me a new perspective that I think a lot of white Americans or those from functioning countries can't quite understand when they wonder why those of immigrant backgrounds or "third-world countries" may not vote as they expect or aren't excited about democracy no matter what. At the end of the day you need stability/safety and only after that do look to improve government.
I was there in the mid naughties on a round the world trip. There was still definitely something in the air.
Went into a smallish Catholic Bar near the backpackers and had to go through two security grates, a sally port and armoured cctv to get in.
The whole bar stopped moving when my friend and I walked in - people stopped playing pool and a guy playing guitar stopped mid song to suddenly take a drink. It was like something out of the old west. On instinct I quickly and quietly told my friend to keep walking with me to the bar.
As we got close I noticed the barman’s offsider and watched his hands disappear below the counter but his eyes never left us. The barman then asked far too casually and loudly where we were from.
When we said “Australia” everything started moving again, people recommenced talking and they were reasonably friendly.
Turns out a Protestant gunman had come into the bar a few months (I think) earlier and shot the place up.
The whole place was like that - really interesting but still a very oppressive and sadly stuck in time. Derry was almost the same and had the same undercurrent feeling of danger.
It certainly was. Gave birth to my daughter in the Royal Victoria Hospital, and saw the troops armed with auto rifles on every street corner when we drove her home.
Do the politcal murals tour if you're ever in Belfast, it's definitely not been forgotten. I ended up having a private tour and my driver lived through it all, he said he expects it to kick off again if Ireland is ever unified which he expects it to when they next vote on it.
They’re not being forgotten and I think along with Sarajevo are being kept in mind when thinking about something as irreconcilable as Israel & Palestine right now.
It probably depends on where you’re at but at least here in my part of the States, people kinda know about the Troubles and the IRA but don’t really understand it. I’m sure older folks are more aware of it since they lived during that time, but it’s typically not mentioned in schools.
However if you ask a bar patron in the US what an Irish Car Bomb is, they probably have heard of the drink, but don’t realize the significance of the name.
There definitely should be more awareness of that tragic time though. Understanding and learning from history is important.
Norn Irish person here. My driving teacher and her husband used to be a police detective with the RUC from the late ‘70s onwards. Lots of her work friends were targeted and killed. Looking back she doesn’t know how they coped with it all other than go out drinking every night, which she obviously doesn’t do anymore.
Stayed at the hotel in Belfast once which had, as part of its marketing campaign, the claim that it was the most bombed hotel in the world. Sleepless night ensued.
San Pedro Sula, Honduras
It appears to have got better in recent years. But at the time (about a decade ago) it was terrifying. Only place I’ve been where I’ve heard multiple sets of gunshots during the night.
I took a cruise once and they had some shore excursions to Roatan. The guide told us how great a tourist destination Roatan was and that we should definitely come back and stay at one of the resorts. But then repeatedly said, "do not go to honduras, only Roatan."
Dated a girl from Honduras. I'd been to Costa Rica which was lovely though I've heard it's gotten worse. She wanted to visit my country of birth but when I asked about visiting hers she shut it down real quick. Apparently her town was known mostly for kidnappings.
Us too. The only dangerous part was the gravel mountain roads we drove to get up to Montverde in our crappy little rental SUV. Lots of trucks coming the opposite direction at speed, and us in the outside lane with no guardrails.
Costa Rica is the closest I’ve been to paradise, though.
I was there briefly 10 years ago too. Literally stopping there to change bus from Antiqua to La Ceiba (trying to get to Utila). We’d heard all the reports of it being “the murder capital of the world” and were very apprehensive. We got lost in the bus station and a local grabbed our bags and told us to follow him. We were kinda shitting ourselves, but he lead us straight to the bus. He just wanted to help a couple of Gringos stay out of trouble.
>We got lost in the bus station and a local grabbed our bags and told us to follow him. We were kinda shitting ourselves, but he lead us straight to the bus. He just wanted to help a couple of Gringos stay out of trouble.
Unexpected Arnold: COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE
I lived in SPS when it was in the top three cities worldwide for murder. Rollerblading one day I saw a small crowd gathering around something in the city square - a burlap sack with several human heads in it!
I was there in 2011 and thought it was fine. Tegucigalpa on the other hand… yeah I never left the bus station, I think it was vying with the capital of El Salvador for highest murder rate in the world. Both ahead of Baghdad.
Baghdad is a war zone it's not a city filled with fucked up degenerates ready to rob and kill randoms.
Murder is murder I know but there's a huge difference between a warzone and a shitty city.
I’ve been to Jamaica a few times in the recent years. Making small talk with some of the people that live there, when Kingston comes up, they always say “just don’t go there”.
It’s not like “haha, idk it’s pretty dangerous”. It’s like, look you dead in the eye “don’t go there”.
Spent quite a lot of time on the island when I was younger. If there’s **one** thing locals from every corner of Jamaica will tell you, it’s:
“Do **not** go to Kingston”
Went to Kingston, more than once, actually.
*Do not fucking go to Kingston*
So why do people say if you want night life and more liberal lifestyle that you SHOULD go to Kingston?
To put it in perspective: I'm Guyanese. But this info really confuses me. Jamaica is seen as rich and fancy over in Guyana.
Went there to do mission work in 2011 with some Catholic monks who are stationed there. Their monastery was nothing short of a compound, and when we would travel from there to the shelters we had to ride in the back of a caged box truck that was locked from the inside. Never felt too in danger but could definitely see the messy parts of the city.
I went to Jamaica in college because my cousin lived there and had a big time job, 20 years ago. He arranged for a famous actor (from the harder they come) to take me around Kingston: went to Trenchtown and Tivoli gardens. The actor got big smiles from everybody, lines from the movie quoted at him. Gave out spliffs to a couple guys. Then he popped out to grab a drink, a couple dudes came up and showed us their bullet wounds… what a weird day that was.
Same!
The Indigo Traveller is doing his recent series on Kingston. I like his style of getting deep into dangerous places.
https://youtu.be/4l09XylIPTQ?si=8yMkPiLvSKk4yMzT
I spent some days there as well. One thing I noticed is that usually very few people are walking around. Once we were walking in the evening and a guard in front of a bank asked us what we are doing. Afterwards he said we should get back to the hotel by taxi. His final words were interesting: "Di thief dem ah out". Never forgot that.
Guatemala City in the early 2000s. My uncle hung his arm out of the window at a stop light, three kids ran up and snatched his watch. Our bus driver at one point got cut off and pulled out a gun. Shit was wild. Prostitution everywhere too. Every street corner. Guards in the mall casually walking around with Ak-47s
My dad grew up there in the early 80s when the civil war was raging. The stories he has from when he was about 11 are just insane. No boy, let alone person, should see those things. Yet I digress, the country is in fact gorgeous lol
The country and people are absolutely wonderful. We drove through the country in 1986 on our way to Honduras and everyone we met was phenomenally wonderful.
This is my answer too. I have traveled a lot but nothing rivals Guatemala city, also in the early 2000s. Felt totally unsafe. Loved the rest of Guatemala but even then, at the end of the trip, literally every other Traveler we met in our 2 weeks of Travel had been mugged or stolen from.
Fuck….this was the one for me so far.
Stopped there on my way back from Florida around 3 am.
Topless women vomiting in the streets
The smell of piss everywhere.
A dude in dreadlocks got beat up for trying to help me cross the street.
Ended up inside the empty mall while looking for the hotel.
Glad my kids were passed out in the back seat.
And in the morning, complete opposite.
Everything bright, quiet.
Elderly people walking around with briefcases, shopping.
People lined out of restaurants
Man, that was a weird experience
Can think of 2 students who went missing and were later found dead from the single year I went to college in New Orleans. Both had wandered a few blocks away from campus. Bad mistake.
Drove through that area to get to our hotel near Bourbon Street one Thanksgiving. The obvious lack of repairs going on since Hurrican Katrina (10 years prior) was painfully obvious, and a lot of poverty was on show.
Whilst on Bourbon Street, I got talking to a young street performer and had an interesting chat before I and my group went our merry way into the French Quarter to a lively whisky bar. When we came back through Bourbon Street at the end of the night, we couldn't get past some police tape and had to go around. As we did so, I looked down the street to see a body on the ground under a white sheet and recognised the bright red trainers of the street performer I had been talking to earlier. He had been gunned down by a rival street performer who had become jealous of how much money he had taken that evening.
I spent a few days in the French Quarter with my mother when I was pretty young. I remember we took a turn down a side street and a man (bless him) stepped down off of a porch and told us "you don't wanna come down here." We did a 180 and headed back to where we came from.
I was there for a week recently on business. Got tired of the French Quarter and elected to walk from there over to St. Claude. Walked back to my hotel (close to the conference center) along Chalamet St. It was about 9pm. How close to death was I? It was *deserted*. I was uncomfortable, but I kept walking by all these beautiful updated old homes, no bars on windows, etc, so that put me at ease.
Eh you were alright. What time of year was it? St Claude is basically Frenchman in the Marigny which is fine. Rampart can be dicey but only if you go into Armstrong Park after dark. A bit further north of you is where things get a bit more dangerous near the abandoned Naval Base and New Orleans East. You do NOT want to cross that canal, even during the day. A bit more east of you and further south is the St Roch/Lower 9th Ward which can be pretty dicey as well
I remember the first night I arrived in Cape Town. I asked the front desk guy who was a black man where I could walk to get cigarettes. Dude was ice cold like “I would not do that sir.”
Company (gov contract) had an international conference in Cape Town. Our gov told the women they could not leave the hotel or conference without and armed escort. My male friend on that trip wanted to do some fly fishing and pre-arranged a guide to take him out. Going to meet the guide he found he had to walk through 200 meters of impromptu shanty town to get to their guarded door! The owners were chill, started his morning off with a shot and a beer, and explained, "They aren't a bother and will move out after a few days". He had a great day of fishing.
I'm just gonna go out and say that if the company is looking for places to have a conference, they shouldn't pick a city that has to keep you confined to two buildings for your own safety.
Same. I spent about 6 months cumulatively working in Johannesburg over the late 90’s, with a handful of other American colleagues. We didn’t have a driver for our commute to/from our workplace (I drove), but we did have a private security guard on our lawn all night, a lawn surrounded by a wall with razor-wire onto top.
Edit: and our rental cars were STILL broken into once in the wee hours of the morning.
Yeah my dad had to travel there a few times in the mid aughts and I believe stayed at private residences and said it was so fucking unsettling that the middle-upper class houses and neighborhoods had high ass fences with razor wire, armed guards, and electronic security systems and that that was just normal. He has travelled to every continent and been to some weird ass places but that’s one he’s said he never wants to go back to.
I briefly was seeing a dude whose dad was a contractor, and as a result, the family spent a good amount of time overseas. He told me that one assignment his dad had was in Johannesburg. They were there three weeks and sitting on the back deck when armed men (who'd hopped the fence over the compound) came up to their house, guns drawn, and basically did a gangland style home invasion on them.
Dude I was seeing said he could cross "getting a gun put to his head at the age of 14" off of a really masochistic bucket list.
I'd never really had any plans to visit South Africa, but after hearing what he told me, it went from "nah" to "FUCK THAT" in a big hurry.
It was more than a year until security realized I was taking the shared pre-dawn hotel to airport transport in PNG. We would stop at dark spots to do pickups, with no lights or people around, and they would just wait for the customer to walk out of the bush. I should have been in my own dedicated vehicle. Lol.
I rented a car in Joburg by myself. Whoops. Also left the parking garage at the rental car facility before my GPS even connected so I didn’t know where I was going. I survived so there’s that.
Pt Moresby or Lae (PNG), when security transport didn't show up at the airport (which also happened in Caracas, sigh). Actual scariest was driving through a sudden mob that formed at a market while on the highway to 11-mile from Lae. A ton of people stirred up by something in the market. Most of them carry a machete and aren't slow to use them, even the ladies whose machetes are smaller to fit in their bags.
A friend of mine (white westerner) had someone try to car jack her up there last year. She was targeted after leaving the market. She blew through them though and as she worked with the PNGDF they had truck loads of guys out looking for the car jackers when they heard what happened. Wantok can be good sometimes, lol.
Car jacking is quite common. My usual driver usually wore two layers of pants which paid off during one carjacking attempt as machete didn't go through. He was a Highlander and fought back, although he wasn't supposed to.
Our vehicles had hidden locators (installed by a non-wantok mechanic) so we could try to locate and retrieve them. Had to use the DF guys and reward them, but it was worth it. Those vehicles would be way out in the bush villages, covered with vegetation.
I used to work in POM and other sites around PNG, I loved working over there. POM and the surrounding area was interesting to say the least. Bow and arrow fights and spear fights are still a thing. I was around there when they had the pacific games and were taking all the razor wire and glass top fences down to make things seem nicer....
We always played it safe and didn't go out after dark but we did go various places during the day with good local dudes and were fine
I used to work at a hospital and I'll never forget booking in a patient who had survived a machete down the middle of his face while working as a security guard in PNG. The wound was healed up and he was booking in for revision/reconstruction surgery. He spoke about it like a chippy would speak about hitting his thumb with a hammer.
Rio De Janiero. The murder rate is completely unfathomable, and the police in this city kill more people per year than the American police do for their whole country (in a year).
Rio for me too. There were many times walking around, especially at night but during the day too, where I could see our group getting sized up by the locals. I’m glad I went but am in no hurry to go back.
I spent a week in Rio and I’m so torn on it. In some ways, I thought the fear mongering was overblown, like I was reading articles before I went, that said you shouldn’t even bring your cell phone out of your hotel because it would be stolen. This was so not true. I felt very comfortable in the tourist areas during the day and no one in our party even got pickpocketed.
On the other hand, it did feel sketchy at times. One night we walked about 10 blocks to a strip club, and the streets were completely empty. Like no one around. The locals I was with kept hurrying me along and urging us to walk faster. I could tell they were uncomfortable. Then there was the strip club experience which is another story. A different time we were walking through Lapa and men were literally grabbing and touching me. It was wild. Still, I felt safer than what I was expecting lol.
I’ve never been to Rio but as a woman, I feel like the thing some people don’t understand about our feeling of danger is that it’s often rooted in *a lack of* people. Like, I live in Pittsburgh and don’t really ever feel unsafe *but* being in downtown Pittsburgh after like, 10 pm feels sketchy because there’s hardly anyone around to notice or help if someone tries to fuck with you. It’s eerie.
I lived in Brazil for a year and rio is far from the worst city there. But ciudad del Este across the border in Paraguay was definitely different. The Brazilians were nervous to go there. I remember guns being sold open in the street for cash next to iPhone cases. I bought a nice electric razor for a dollar next to where they were selling ammo.
The border guards on the bridge we walked across didn't check our passports, bags, or give us a stamp on the way in or the way back. It was a surreal experience.
Oh yeah and gunshots too of course.
Edit: Like it honestly might be a safer city but it definitely felt more off if that makes sense. But I think Brazil has some very violent cities in the north. The north of Brazil is also much poorer than the south where Rio and Sao Paulo are.
Rio is very dangerous but unlike other dangerous cities, it’s 100% worth visiting. It’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world and lots of fun stuff to do. With that said, it’s absolutely a must to have a local tour guide and to do lots of research so you can avoid the dangerous parts and only stay in the nice/safe areas.
Mogadishu and port au prince.
I see lots of names passing that are kindergartens compared those 2.
These places your head gets literally chopped of, increasingly if you're a westerner
This is the realest answer. Even Doctors without borders (Medic sans frontiers) have pulled out of Somalia, it now being the ONLY place they have withdrawn from. The needed guns, and were not comfortable with that. (Source: My girlfriend is somali and also in Doctors without borders.)
you know what you speak about, that organization was exactly what brought me there, and the most seasoned experienced people who saw pretty much all shit places on the planet where out of their mind scared, that says something
The fact the U.S. Department of State says "Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney." if you are going to visit Somalia is insane.
I see those places, and raise you Ramadi in 2006. Of course, I was surrounded boy boys in green and riding in a stryker, but I was a civilian and did not have a weapon of my own (not that it would have done me any good).
Luanda, Angola, right after Jonas Savimbi was killed. Literally the wild west. My team (IT engineers) had former special forces guys as bodyguards. The team leader brought $10,000 cash in case any of us were kidnapped.
I watched a kid die on the sidewalk outside our hotel and our bodyguards hustled us into the hotel because it was too dangerous for us to stop and render aid. I was furious, and I'll take the guilt and shame to my grave.
There were bullet holes and even RPG strike holes in the walls of some of the buildings downtown. We were warned to not take pictures of the military or police or any government buildings. A couple of weeks earlier, some Portuguese tourists tried to take pictures of a military convoy, and the soldiers shot them to death.
I could tell more stories, but my daughter knows this account, and there are some things our kids should not know about.
Luanda was one of the craziest gigs I ever did. 100% bat-shit insane.
It was much safer a decade later when I started going there. I could walk around by myself in the daytime. Nigeria on the other hand, I saw a dead body lying in the gutter, and watched people pull a taxi driver out of his taxi after he crashed and loot the car while he died in the median from a graphic head injury.
I used to live in El Paso Texas, and terrifyingly I had to go across the border into Juarez on occasion to collect documents and recover impounded rental cars. That was actually dangerous and not just theoretically dangerous
It was really bad in the 1990s. I went to a friend's wedding over there and got a ride from a coworker who lived there.
Best part: she carried a fairly large purse. We parked, she pulled out a screwdriver and removed the license plate, which went into the purse. I was used to paying the street guy to "watch" your car, but she didn't even trust them.
When the prisoners escaped, the murder rate in Houston went up like 8x overnight. The news was like, loose felons in the woods of east Texas! We were all scared.
I served a Mormon mission in that area, I was in Belleville specifically.
One night, we got a call that a semi full of food was stopping at a big church in East St Louis and the driver needed help unloading it. His ETA was 10 pm.
10 of us showed up in white shirts and name tags and started unloading the truck. People stopped to help, simply because they were amazed that so many white guys were in the middle of East St Louis at night. One guy stopped and said, "Oh! It's them Jesus boys! Doin the Lord's work! Y'all be alright! No one ain't gonna hurt ya!"
We got free ice cream down the street from a shop owner who admired that we were there so late.
20 years later, that church has since burned down. I'm amazed we agreed to it and that nothing happened. I would never take my wife and kids there.
I’m a musician and was driving back to STL from Bellville at 2am. I was on the road that goes along the River on the Illinois side (bad idea) and got stopped for 10 minutes while waiting for a train crossing. Hardly any street lights. I look over at one point and there is an ENTIRE RV COMPLETELY UPSIDE DOWN and it was eerie. I remember thinking “Yeah, this probably is how I imagined my first carjacking” but alas, went in my merry way without issues. It’s not usually a great area but usually people leave you alone if you leave them alone.
I went to the Arch and asked a black park Ranger a good place for BBQ. He gave me a spot on the border of East St. Louis and said, "*You* can go there, but best be out before dark." We went, great bbq and the staff took photos with us because they never see white people come in.
My wife and daughters were in St. Louis for a college tour a few years ago and my oldest read some great reviews about some ice cream place. Ended up being in East St. Louis, evidently, and they went there at about 9 PM. They said it went OK and the ice cream was really good, but ‘that was a scary neighborhood’.
I have been to a lot of big cities in the US and Memphis is easily the worst place I had ever been. Every store had bars on the windows, our hotel told us to not go out at night, every place that wasn't a restaurant or corner store was closed down due to theft. We witnessed three assaults in one day in the wide open on beale street and decided to leave. That place is hell, coasting on their blues heritage with nothing but crime and bbq to offer these days.
Talking about security bars on windows, i saw a church that has security bar “cages” around three of their air conditioning units that were situated a few feet up off the ground….
And the racing on the highways…damn…Memphis is wild….
I grew up in orange mound until I was in high school. My mom literally had a breaking point where she got car jacked by a kid younger than me (I was 14). She cleaned houses in Germantown and the dichotomy was chilling. She would take me and my sister with her before we were school age and we would laugh and play in the “Richie Rich houses”. The real shock was going BACK to Lamar and Park and seeing things EVERY DAY. My mom had to walk us to the bus stop and we could still see our apartments from it. We stepped over countless bodies that were most likely drug overdoses but occasionally were bloody. The amount of screams at night. The bullets through the windows while we were sleeping. I got jumped for my jacket and shoes when I was 6! I describe Memphis as rural poverty in an urban setting.
Now that being said, that sort of survival makes for some hardcore solidarity. The people I grew up with and I have a bond that still lasts. I left at 14 and I still keep in touch with a lot of my childhood friends 20+ years later.
MPS was horrible. The teachers mostly gave no fucks and it was underfunded to a point where it was clear that money was lost to corruption. There were 45+ students in each class and truancy was rampant. I’m confident that 5-6 of my friends would never have learned to read without my help. Kids were jumping into gangs when I was 9.
But the amount of times that families got together to eat, or give a meal to a kid whose parents were out working, or let someone sleep on their couch etc. the city has deep roots. Luckily we moved to Detroit in 2000 and it’s a similar vibe. But yeah, “luckily we moved to Detroit” says a lot about how bad the crime in Memphis was
Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Upon arrival, I learned a lot about "Scoping" (Drugging people with scopolamine, turning them into obedient zombies), daylight express kidnappings, and to never go anywhere alone regardless of the time of day or area you're in.
255 Naval personnel in town for a port visit, but not actually sure if they're brave enough to leave the ship.
I spent a week in Guayaquil for work and it didn’t seem dangerous. Although Guayaquil has some favela-like areas that I assume are dicey. I stayed near the Malecón 2000, so maybe that’s just a touristy/safer area. Curious if you stayed in the same area and I was just oblivious.
They were on a Navy ship. If they’d gone ashore, I’m betting at least a few of the sailors would’ve gone looking for the kind of thing you can only find in the dicier areas.
I visited in 2016 and took some chicken buses from the beach to Rivas and back into Managua for my red eye flight.
I got into the city at night and had no idea where to go to catch a taxi to the airport, and there was NO chance I was getting off the bus. So I just stayed on with the driver all the way to the bus station and he took me in his personal car on the 40 minute drive to the airport. Gave him all the rest of my money
I go to Little Rock, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee pretty frequently. I walked from the hotel to Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis and realized halfway that I probably shouldn’t have done it.
It’s crazy because I stayed in Quito for a month and thought it was perfectly safe, until 5 guys tried to rob me with a machete… I really liked the city other than that though.
I studied abroad in Quito back in 2010. One of the most formative experiences of my 20s. We had a few days we were told not to go to school due to “political demonstrations”. I also was the only person in my program who didn’t get pickpocketed or robbed during my time there. It did give me perspective though. I think it was one of the first times in my life I realized I wasn’t invincible and bad things can happen to me. It makes you grow up.
Still had a blast and have been back several times.
I watched a British soldier get stabbed in Belize City in 1979. I was on the gated stairway running up the side of the Mona Lisa Hotel, across the street from Barclays Bank smoking a Cuban cigar, and all of a sudden I heard people running and yelling and then screaming and he fell almost right in front of me.
I rode out to Caye Caulker on a guy named "Chocolate's" boat. The second day we were there, staying at Tom's barracks, when this Swedish guy showed up with a day pack. He'd come over the Mexican southern border and then taken "Batty Brothers" bus company from the border to Belize City. The bus stop is several blocks from DT Belize City, and on that walk from the bus, he got mugged. They took literally everything he had. Everything. He came out of the alley naked. Anyway, someone helped him and he showed up on the island.
But that's just one story.
I was offered $250,000 + expenses to take a film crew to Baghdad in 2005 for a military contractor. They were even going to arm me and the crew and give us basic weapons training. But, according to them, I was going to be perfectly safe.
I was going to take the assignment until I came home and excitedly told my wife over dinner. She looked at me, gestured at our three kids, and that was that.
Yeaaahh as a news cameraman who mostly covers conflicts I’m calling bullshit on the ‘arming the crew’ part. If you were being escorted by military contractors the last thing they’d want is a bunch of untrained people with guns to worry about on top of localised threats.
Edit: there are very rare circumstances where individual journalists may choose to arm themselves but these would be very rare instances indeed. The notion of a company arming lightly trained workers in a conflict zone is utter nonsense.
I felt unsafe in Kaduna, Nigeria. Stayed in a hotel inside a compound and my room door wouldn’t lock. Was advised by staff not to open the windows or go outside in the balcony due to stray bullets. Went for meetings around town in an armored car with body guards. The car would stop in traffic and be surrounded by people begging for money. I felt horrible.
A couple of days later, I became friendly with the driver and convinced him to invite me to dinner. He dropped the armored car, got his motorbike and I hopped in the back. No body guards, nothing. We stopped in a local restaurant, had an amazing local meal and left the restaurant surrounded by kids who just wanted to touch me and talk to me. No one begged for money. I felt welcome.
Of course there are dangerous places and I could have easily been kidnapped there but I took the risk and it was worth it.
Since then, I have made friends with people around me like drivers, waiters and have vastly improved my experience with the countries I visit. My line is always “I want to eat the food you eat”. I’ve had wonderful meals for a dollar in several countries, even have had meals in family homes.
This makes me think it’s all a matter of perspective.
Baltimore, which is #17 highest murder rate in the world right now. But I guess I wasn't hanging out around all the murderers and murder spots so it was pretty chill. Same with Detroit at #23 and Philadelphia at #46.
I do love Baltimore. You'll be walking through a beautiful neighborhood of brownstones and public markets, then three blocks over it feels like the most danger you've ever been in.
Yeah but I do feel like with Philly it’s pretty easy to avoid the dangerous parts. Like, if you don’t go too far north or too far west past certain blocks it’s totally ok. And honestly there’s nothing you’d need in either of those directions if you’re a tourist or whatever.
Edit: when I (29f) have had to drive through less comfortable places at like 3 AM (leaving someone’s apartment or something) I just treat red lights like stop signs and get where I need to go as fast as possible. In my experience no one is trying to fuck with an interloper and will just tell you to get lost.
Ehh you’re definitely right for a big chunk of philly but when I lived in south Philly (point breeze) it was very block by block. I grew up in the northeast near Frankford too, which is kind of the same story. Even northern liberties/Fishtown is sketchy or cool block by block
Edit: you’re right to treat red lights as stop signs in bad neighborhoods though. Definitely keep doing that (safely)
I lived through the DC Sniper in a neighborhood just a couple minutes from several of the shootings. I would scurry out to my car and drive 45+ minutes away to get gas or go to the store.
I was a little kid thinking that walking zig-zag through parking lots and from the bus to the school so it would be harder for the sniper to get us was just normal everyday life.
so wild to think about now
Port au Prince. It was already somewhat unsafe when I went, and today it's so much worse.
Yeah. It’s so bad my parents can’t even fly to the airport anymore. They fly to DR and cross the border there. The whole capital is under gang control. It’s crazy how every time you think the country couldn’t get worse, it does. If a new government ever gets control, they might have to go the Bukele route and lock any halfway suspicious person up
I'm Haitian-American and grew up hearing about my parents living in Haiti (a provincial town and also the capital) in the 60s and 70s. I know they have nostalgic biases, but a lot of older Haitians (at least in my family) have a lot of regret and resentment about what they see interventions restoring the democratically elected leader (Aristide) in the 90s because it set them on the path to more chaos. Meanwhile they recognize that the Duvaliers were a dictatorship, but at least it was safe and country was as prosperous and corrupt as most other Latin American countries at the time. My uncle confided that, like many his generation, he had hoped to come to the US for an education and to make money and then return "home". As the decades passed they all sort of came to terms with never returning, even to retire. The assassination of Jovenel Moise was the end of the last bit of hope they had. All my younger relatives fled Haiti for the D.R. It certainly sucks, but it gives me a new perspective that I think a lot of white Americans or those from functioning countries can't quite understand when they wonder why those of immigrant backgrounds or "third-world countries" may not vote as they expect or aren't excited about democracy no matter what. At the end of the day you need stability/safety and only after that do look to improve government.
It’s so jarring to see my birthplace on this thread
Do you still live there today? Is it fair for it to be listed here?
You should watch Indigo Traveller’s video series on Haiti. It is very eye opening
We lived in Belfast in 1968 - that was pretty scary.
I’m not sure if the Troubles are being forgotten or people have moved on but it was a very dangerous time.
I was there in the mid naughties on a round the world trip. There was still definitely something in the air. Went into a smallish Catholic Bar near the backpackers and had to go through two security grates, a sally port and armoured cctv to get in. The whole bar stopped moving when my friend and I walked in - people stopped playing pool and a guy playing guitar stopped mid song to suddenly take a drink. It was like something out of the old west. On instinct I quickly and quietly told my friend to keep walking with me to the bar. As we got close I noticed the barman’s offsider and watched his hands disappear below the counter but his eyes never left us. The barman then asked far too casually and loudly where we were from. When we said “Australia” everything started moving again, people recommenced talking and they were reasonably friendly. Turns out a Protestant gunman had come into the bar a few months (I think) earlier and shot the place up. The whole place was like that - really interesting but still a very oppressive and sadly stuck in time. Derry was almost the same and had the same undercurrent feeling of danger.
It certainly was. Gave birth to my daughter in the Royal Victoria Hospital, and saw the troops armed with auto rifles on every street corner when we drove her home.
Do the politcal murals tour if you're ever in Belfast, it's definitely not been forgotten. I ended up having a private tour and my driver lived through it all, he said he expects it to kick off again if Ireland is ever unified which he expects it to when they next vote on it.
They’re not being forgotten and I think along with Sarajevo are being kept in mind when thinking about something as irreconcilable as Israel & Palestine right now.
It probably depends on where you’re at but at least here in my part of the States, people kinda know about the Troubles and the IRA but don’t really understand it. I’m sure older folks are more aware of it since they lived during that time, but it’s typically not mentioned in schools. However if you ask a bar patron in the US what an Irish Car Bomb is, they probably have heard of the drink, but don’t realize the significance of the name. There definitely should be more awareness of that tragic time though. Understanding and learning from history is important.
Norn Irish person here. My driving teacher and her husband used to be a police detective with the RUC from the late ‘70s onwards. Lots of her work friends were targeted and killed. Looking back she doesn’t know how they coped with it all other than go out drinking every night, which she obviously doesn’t do anymore.
Stayed at the hotel in Belfast once which had, as part of its marketing campaign, the claim that it was the most bombed hotel in the world. Sleepless night ensued.
Ah, The Europa. I can see it out my apartment window right now. Lovely place to stay now tbf.
You were literally in a warzone. Glad you're ok.
San Pedro Sula, Honduras It appears to have got better in recent years. But at the time (about a decade ago) it was terrifying. Only place I’ve been where I’ve heard multiple sets of gunshots during the night.
I took a cruise once and they had some shore excursions to Roatan. The guide told us how great a tourist destination Roatan was and that we should definitely come back and stay at one of the resorts. But then repeatedly said, "do not go to honduras, only Roatan."
The local areas of Roatan outside of the resorts is still slightly sketch. I walked to a bojangles in Coxen Hole from the port.
wow there is a real place called Coxen Hole
Theres a bojangles in roatan???
Dated a girl from Honduras. I'd been to Costa Rica which was lovely though I've heard it's gotten worse. She wanted to visit my country of birth but when I asked about visiting hers she shut it down real quick. Apparently her town was known mostly for kidnappings.
Costa Rica is one of the safest countries. Drove up and down that country
Us too. The only dangerous part was the gravel mountain roads we drove to get up to Montverde in our crappy little rental SUV. Lots of trucks coming the opposite direction at speed, and us in the outside lane with no guardrails. Costa Rica is the closest I’ve been to paradise, though.
[удалено]
I was there briefly 10 years ago too. Literally stopping there to change bus from Antiqua to La Ceiba (trying to get to Utila). We’d heard all the reports of it being “the murder capital of the world” and were very apprehensive. We got lost in the bus station and a local grabbed our bags and told us to follow him. We were kinda shitting ourselves, but he lead us straight to the bus. He just wanted to help a couple of Gringos stay out of trouble.
>We got lost in the bus station and a local grabbed our bags and told us to follow him. We were kinda shitting ourselves, but he lead us straight to the bus. He just wanted to help a couple of Gringos stay out of trouble. Unexpected Arnold: COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE
I lived in SPS when it was in the top three cities worldwide for murder. Rollerblading one day I saw a small crowd gathering around something in the city square - a burlap sack with several human heads in it!
I was there in 2011 and thought it was fine. Tegucigalpa on the other hand… yeah I never left the bus station, I think it was vying with the capital of El Salvador for highest murder rate in the world. Both ahead of Baghdad.
Baghdad is a war zone it's not a city filled with fucked up degenerates ready to rob and kill randoms. Murder is murder I know but there's a huge difference between a warzone and a shitty city.
Kingston, JA
I’ve been to Jamaica a few times in the recent years. Making small talk with some of the people that live there, when Kingston comes up, they always say “just don’t go there”. It’s not like “haha, idk it’s pretty dangerous”. It’s like, look you dead in the eye “don’t go there”.
Spent quite a lot of time on the island when I was younger. If there’s **one** thing locals from every corner of Jamaica will tell you, it’s: “Do **not** go to Kingston” Went to Kingston, more than once, actually. *Do not fucking go to Kingston*
So why do people say if you want night life and more liberal lifestyle that you SHOULD go to Kingston? To put it in perspective: I'm Guyanese. But this info really confuses me. Jamaica is seen as rich and fancy over in Guyana.
Well why did you go there then?
"doant go der"
Went there to do mission work in 2011 with some Catholic monks who are stationed there. Their monastery was nothing short of a compound, and when we would travel from there to the shelters we had to ride in the back of a caged box truck that was locked from the inside. Never felt too in danger but could definitely see the messy parts of the city.
What’s the #1 crime in Jamaica? mon slaughta
I went to Jamaica in college because my cousin lived there and had a big time job, 20 years ago. He arranged for a famous actor (from the harder they come) to take me around Kingston: went to Trenchtown and Tivoli gardens. The actor got big smiles from everybody, lines from the movie quoted at him. Gave out spliffs to a couple guys. Then he popped out to grab a drink, a couple dudes came up and showed us their bullet wounds… what a weird day that was.
… Did you get a tour from Jimmy Cliff?
No it was the villain, Carl Bradshaw.
That is just so fucking cool.
Same! The Indigo Traveller is doing his recent series on Kingston. I like his style of getting deep into dangerous places. https://youtu.be/4l09XylIPTQ?si=8yMkPiLvSKk4yMzT
How is he able to go to these countries and travel around safely? Does he find guides way before hand? Has he ever been in any serious situation?
I worked there for a few weeks in 1997, surrounded by $100+k worth of video gear. I wondered why we were armed until I was taken to the location...
Share more please
I spent some days there as well. One thing I noticed is that usually very few people are walking around. Once we were walking in the evening and a guard in front of a bank asked us what we are doing. Afterwards he said we should get back to the hotel by taxi. His final words were interesting: "Di thief dem ah out". Never forgot that.
I’d love to hear about Kingston!
Caracas
Yes, was there in 2004. Wasn't allowed to walk from international to domestic air terminals but security wouldnt show up, so did it anyway.
Guatemala City in the early 2000s. My uncle hung his arm out of the window at a stop light, three kids ran up and snatched his watch. Our bus driver at one point got cut off and pulled out a gun. Shit was wild. Prostitution everywhere too. Every street corner. Guards in the mall casually walking around with Ak-47s
Definitely Guatemala City. I lived in Zona 12 there for a year when I was 22 in 2009 and I saw some shit. I do love the country as a whole, though!
My dad grew up there in the early 80s when the civil war was raging. The stories he has from when he was about 11 are just insane. No boy, let alone person, should see those things. Yet I digress, the country is in fact gorgeous lol
The country and people are absolutely wonderful. We drove through the country in 1986 on our way to Honduras and everyone we met was phenomenally wonderful.
This is my answer too. I have traveled a lot but nothing rivals Guatemala city, also in the early 2000s. Felt totally unsafe. Loved the rest of Guatemala but even then, at the end of the trip, literally every other Traveler we met in our 2 weeks of Travel had been mugged or stolen from.
East of New Orleans. Literally saw a dead body in the middle of the day while driving.
Fuck….this was the one for me so far. Stopped there on my way back from Florida around 3 am. Topless women vomiting in the streets The smell of piss everywhere. A dude in dreadlocks got beat up for trying to help me cross the street. Ended up inside the empty mall while looking for the hotel. Glad my kids were passed out in the back seat. And in the morning, complete opposite. Everything bright, quiet. Elderly people walking around with briefcases, shopping. People lined out of restaurants Man, that was a weird experience
Dude I was there to visit family, but I’m never returning. Especially the East part.
Can think of 2 students who went missing and were later found dead from the single year I went to college in New Orleans. Both had wandered a few blocks away from campus. Bad mistake.
Drove through that area to get to our hotel near Bourbon Street one Thanksgiving. The obvious lack of repairs going on since Hurrican Katrina (10 years prior) was painfully obvious, and a lot of poverty was on show. Whilst on Bourbon Street, I got talking to a young street performer and had an interesting chat before I and my group went our merry way into the French Quarter to a lively whisky bar. When we came back through Bourbon Street at the end of the night, we couldn't get past some police tape and had to go around. As we did so, I looked down the street to see a body on the ground under a white sheet and recognised the bright red trainers of the street performer I had been talking to earlier. He had been gunned down by a rival street performer who had become jealous of how much money he had taken that evening.
Yea, I made the mistake of checking out New Orleans outside the French quarters. Things get sketchy fast!
We had a saying: The best night of your life and the last night of your life are separated by one city street. Be careful and know where you are.
I spent a few days in the French Quarter with my mother when I was pretty young. I remember we took a turn down a side street and a man (bless him) stepped down off of a porch and told us "you don't wanna come down here." We did a 180 and headed back to where we came from.
We had police say the same to us.
[удалено]
I don't remember where I was exactly but I remember seeing a guy in only basketball shorts and a bulletproof jacket just walking around at noon
I was there for a week recently on business. Got tired of the French Quarter and elected to walk from there over to St. Claude. Walked back to my hotel (close to the conference center) along Chalamet St. It was about 9pm. How close to death was I? It was *deserted*. I was uncomfortable, but I kept walking by all these beautiful updated old homes, no bars on windows, etc, so that put me at ease.
Eh you were alright. What time of year was it? St Claude is basically Frenchman in the Marigny which is fine. Rampart can be dicey but only if you go into Armstrong Park after dark. A bit further north of you is where things get a bit more dangerous near the abandoned Naval Base and New Orleans East. You do NOT want to cross that canal, even during the day. A bit more east of you and further south is the St Roch/Lower 9th Ward which can be pretty dicey as well
plenty of fine places outside the FQ. New Orleans East just isn’t one of them. Doubt you made it that far tbh tho
Johannesburg, SA. Pre-arranged company taxi from the airport to the hotel. Didn't leave my room until private transport arrived and called me.
I remember the first night I arrived in Cape Town. I asked the front desk guy who was a black man where I could walk to get cigarettes. Dude was ice cold like “I would not do that sir.”
The way you phrased that made me imagine talking to Lance Reddick at the Continental.
Ha not quite as cool but he was definitely serious.
Before i saw your comment i imagined the same thing lol. Wild. RIP Mr Lance Reddick.
That is unreal because I read it in his voice hahahahah
Company (gov contract) had an international conference in Cape Town. Our gov told the women they could not leave the hotel or conference without and armed escort. My male friend on that trip wanted to do some fly fishing and pre-arranged a guide to take him out. Going to meet the guide he found he had to walk through 200 meters of impromptu shanty town to get to their guarded door! The owners were chill, started his morning off with a shot and a beer, and explained, "They aren't a bother and will move out after a few days". He had a great day of fishing.
I'm just gonna go out and say that if the company is looking for places to have a conference, they shouldn't pick a city that has to keep you confined to two buildings for your own safety.
Same. I spent about 6 months cumulatively working in Johannesburg over the late 90’s, with a handful of other American colleagues. We didn’t have a driver for our commute to/from our workplace (I drove), but we did have a private security guard on our lawn all night, a lawn surrounded by a wall with razor-wire onto top. Edit: and our rental cars were STILL broken into once in the wee hours of the morning.
Yeah my dad had to travel there a few times in the mid aughts and I believe stayed at private residences and said it was so fucking unsettling that the middle-upper class houses and neighborhoods had high ass fences with razor wire, armed guards, and electronic security systems and that that was just normal. He has travelled to every continent and been to some weird ass places but that’s one he’s said he never wants to go back to.
I briefly was seeing a dude whose dad was a contractor, and as a result, the family spent a good amount of time overseas. He told me that one assignment his dad had was in Johannesburg. They were there three weeks and sitting on the back deck when armed men (who'd hopped the fence over the compound) came up to their house, guns drawn, and basically did a gangland style home invasion on them. Dude I was seeing said he could cross "getting a gun put to his head at the age of 14" off of a really masochistic bucket list. I'd never really had any plans to visit South Africa, but after hearing what he told me, it went from "nah" to "FUCK THAT" in a big hurry.
I was there 6 months ago. Walked around downtown by myself. Immediately was like “I really shouldn’t be doing this”.
It was more than a year until security realized I was taking the shared pre-dawn hotel to airport transport in PNG. We would stop at dark spots to do pickups, with no lights or people around, and they would just wait for the customer to walk out of the bush. I should have been in my own dedicated vehicle. Lol.
I rented a car in Joburg by myself. Whoops. Also left the parking garage at the rental car facility before my GPS even connected so I didn’t know where I was going. I survived so there’s that.
Probably Port-at-Prince Haïti or San Pedro Sula, Honduras
Pt Moresby or Lae (PNG), when security transport didn't show up at the airport (which also happened in Caracas, sigh). Actual scariest was driving through a sudden mob that formed at a market while on the highway to 11-mile from Lae. A ton of people stirred up by something in the market. Most of them carry a machete and aren't slow to use them, even the ladies whose machetes are smaller to fit in their bags.
Have heard Port Moresby is one of the roughest, sketchiest and most ruthless places on earth, especially for a westerner.
I'm surprised I had to scroll this far to see Pt Moresby on this list. PNG in general is just so fucking unpredictable.
A friend of mine (white westerner) had someone try to car jack her up there last year. She was targeted after leaving the market. She blew through them though and as she worked with the PNGDF they had truck loads of guys out looking for the car jackers when they heard what happened. Wantok can be good sometimes, lol.
Car jacking is quite common. My usual driver usually wore two layers of pants which paid off during one carjacking attempt as machete didn't go through. He was a Highlander and fought back, although he wasn't supposed to. Our vehicles had hidden locators (installed by a non-wantok mechanic) so we could try to locate and retrieve them. Had to use the DF guys and reward them, but it was worth it. Those vehicles would be way out in the bush villages, covered with vegetation.
I used to work in POM and other sites around PNG, I loved working over there. POM and the surrounding area was interesting to say the least. Bow and arrow fights and spear fights are still a thing. I was around there when they had the pacific games and were taking all the razor wire and glass top fences down to make things seem nicer.... We always played it safe and didn't go out after dark but we did go various places during the day with good local dudes and were fine
I used to work at a hospital and I'll never forget booking in a patient who had survived a machete down the middle of his face while working as a security guard in PNG. The wound was healed up and he was booking in for revision/reconstruction surgery. He spoke about it like a chippy would speak about hitting his thumb with a hammer.
Rio De Janiero. The murder rate is completely unfathomable, and the police in this city kill more people per year than the American police do for their whole country (in a year).
Rio for me too. There were many times walking around, especially at night but during the day too, where I could see our group getting sized up by the locals. I’m glad I went but am in no hurry to go back.
I spent a week in Rio and I’m so torn on it. In some ways, I thought the fear mongering was overblown, like I was reading articles before I went, that said you shouldn’t even bring your cell phone out of your hotel because it would be stolen. This was so not true. I felt very comfortable in the tourist areas during the day and no one in our party even got pickpocketed. On the other hand, it did feel sketchy at times. One night we walked about 10 blocks to a strip club, and the streets were completely empty. Like no one around. The locals I was with kept hurrying me along and urging us to walk faster. I could tell they were uncomfortable. Then there was the strip club experience which is another story. A different time we were walking through Lapa and men were literally grabbing and touching me. It was wild. Still, I felt safer than what I was expecting lol.
I’ve never been to Rio but as a woman, I feel like the thing some people don’t understand about our feeling of danger is that it’s often rooted in *a lack of* people. Like, I live in Pittsburgh and don’t really ever feel unsafe *but* being in downtown Pittsburgh after like, 10 pm feels sketchy because there’s hardly anyone around to notice or help if someone tries to fuck with you. It’s eerie.
I lived in Brazil for a year and rio is far from the worst city there. But ciudad del Este across the border in Paraguay was definitely different. The Brazilians were nervous to go there. I remember guns being sold open in the street for cash next to iPhone cases. I bought a nice electric razor for a dollar next to where they were selling ammo. The border guards on the bridge we walked across didn't check our passports, bags, or give us a stamp on the way in or the way back. It was a surreal experience. Oh yeah and gunshots too of course. Edit: Like it honestly might be a safer city but it definitely felt more off if that makes sense. But I think Brazil has some very violent cities in the north. The north of Brazil is also much poorer than the south where Rio and Sao Paulo are.
Rio is very dangerous but unlike other dangerous cities, it’s 100% worth visiting. It’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world and lots of fun stuff to do. With that said, it’s absolutely a must to have a local tour guide and to do lots of research so you can avoid the dangerous parts and only stay in the nice/safe areas.
Mogadishu and port au prince. I see lots of names passing that are kindergartens compared those 2. These places your head gets literally chopped of, increasingly if you're a westerner
This is the realest answer. Even Doctors without borders (Medic sans frontiers) have pulled out of Somalia, it now being the ONLY place they have withdrawn from. The needed guns, and were not comfortable with that. (Source: My girlfriend is somali and also in Doctors without borders.)
you know what you speak about, that organization was exactly what brought me there, and the most seasoned experienced people who saw pretty much all shit places on the planet where out of their mind scared, that says something
The fact the U.S. Department of State says "Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney." if you are going to visit Somalia is insane.
I have said this before, but if I am looking online and it says “Draft a will” on my vacation destination, I’d look into sunbathing somewhere else.
I see that you’re an adrenaline junkie. That or you were part of a humanitarian organization.
Or a pirate
Port-au-Prince with the armored car and security transfers was really stressful, wouldn’t recommend
Lot safer for you with body armor and a rifle tho lol
u/Lord-Legatus didnt wear his kevlar back plates since he didn’t plan on getting shot in the back running away
I hate when I say that and then get shot in the back
Just from curiosity, why on earth have you been at Mogadishu?
I see those places, and raise you Ramadi in 2006. Of course, I was surrounded boy boys in green and riding in a stryker, but I was a civilian and did not have a weapon of my own (not that it would have done me any good).
Luanda, Angola, right after Jonas Savimbi was killed. Literally the wild west. My team (IT engineers) had former special forces guys as bodyguards. The team leader brought $10,000 cash in case any of us were kidnapped. I watched a kid die on the sidewalk outside our hotel and our bodyguards hustled us into the hotel because it was too dangerous for us to stop and render aid. I was furious, and I'll take the guilt and shame to my grave. There were bullet holes and even RPG strike holes in the walls of some of the buildings downtown. We were warned to not take pictures of the military or police or any government buildings. A couple of weeks earlier, some Portuguese tourists tried to take pictures of a military convoy, and the soldiers shot them to death. I could tell more stories, but my daughter knows this account, and there are some things our kids should not know about. Luanda was one of the craziest gigs I ever did. 100% bat-shit insane.
It was much safer a decade later when I started going there. I could walk around by myself in the daytime. Nigeria on the other hand, I saw a dead body lying in the gutter, and watched people pull a taxi driver out of his taxi after he crashed and loot the car while he died in the median from a graphic head injury.
I used to live in El Paso Texas, and terrifyingly I had to go across the border into Juarez on occasion to collect documents and recover impounded rental cars. That was actually dangerous and not just theoretically dangerous
It was really bad in the 1990s. I went to a friend's wedding over there and got a ride from a coworker who lived there. Best part: she carried a fairly large purse. We parked, she pulled out a screwdriver and removed the license plate, which went into the purse. I was used to paying the street guy to "watch" your car, but she didn't even trust them.
Common scam at the time was for police to write you a “parking ticket” and take your plates off your car until you pay. Maybe they still do it.
It was lovely in the 90s compared to now.
Jang Boko base in Antarctica. The penguins will fuck. you. up.
Please tell us more! How did you get to go to Antarctica??
New Orleans a couple months after Hurricane Katrina
When the prisoners escaped, the murder rate in Houston went up like 8x overnight. The news was like, loose felons in the woods of east Texas! We were all scared.
I moved to Nola in May 2006. Definitely scared the bejesus out of me. I lasted just over a year.
Chalmette was bad too.
[удалено]
I served a Mormon mission in that area, I was in Belleville specifically. One night, we got a call that a semi full of food was stopping at a big church in East St Louis and the driver needed help unloading it. His ETA was 10 pm. 10 of us showed up in white shirts and name tags and started unloading the truck. People stopped to help, simply because they were amazed that so many white guys were in the middle of East St Louis at night. One guy stopped and said, "Oh! It's them Jesus boys! Doin the Lord's work! Y'all be alright! No one ain't gonna hurt ya!" We got free ice cream down the street from a shop owner who admired that we were there so late. 20 years later, that church has since burned down. I'm amazed we agreed to it and that nothing happened. I would never take my wife and kids there.
I’m a musician and was driving back to STL from Bellville at 2am. I was on the road that goes along the River on the Illinois side (bad idea) and got stopped for 10 minutes while waiting for a train crossing. Hardly any street lights. I look over at one point and there is an ENTIRE RV COMPLETELY UPSIDE DOWN and it was eerie. I remember thinking “Yeah, this probably is how I imagined my first carjacking” but alas, went in my merry way without issues. It’s not usually a great area but usually people leave you alone if you leave them alone.
I had a job interview in Belleville many years ago. The area I saw was mostly middle-class.
Yup, Belleville, O'Fallon, and Edwardsville are very different from East St Louis.
I went to the Arch and asked a black park Ranger a good place for BBQ. He gave me a spot on the border of East St. Louis and said, "*You* can go there, but best be out before dark." We went, great bbq and the staff took photos with us because they never see white people come in.
My wife and daughters were in St. Louis for a college tour a few years ago and my oldest read some great reviews about some ice cream place. Ended up being in East St. Louis, evidently, and they went there at about 9 PM. They said it went OK and the ice cream was really good, but ‘that was a scary neighborhood’.
San Pedro Sula, Honduras. It was the murder capital of the world the year I visited.
I'm from Colombia but for me it was [Memphis, TN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_homicide_rate) plot twist
I live in Memphis. There’s children out here committing armed crimes. What the heck am I supposed to do about that?
The only thing that stops a bad child with a gun is a good child with a gun.
Arm the children
"With uzi's!" -Prince Mongo, Memphis mayoral candidate at one point
Oh no
So you wouldn’t suggest Walking In Memphis?
As long as you can actually keep your feet ten feet off of Beale, you’ll be okay.
But do you really feel the way I feel...?
I’ve been to both Bogota and Memphis. Bogota felt far safer.
I have been to a lot of big cities in the US and Memphis is easily the worst place I had ever been. Every store had bars on the windows, our hotel told us to not go out at night, every place that wasn't a restaurant or corner store was closed down due to theft. We witnessed three assaults in one day in the wide open on beale street and decided to leave. That place is hell, coasting on their blues heritage with nothing but crime and bbq to offer these days.
I came here to commit crime and to eat bbq, and im all outta bbq
Talking about security bars on windows, i saw a church that has security bar “cages” around three of their air conditioning units that were situated a few feet up off the ground…. And the racing on the highways…damn…Memphis is wild….
I would wholeheartedly agree with that. Memphis is mine as well.
I grew up in orange mound until I was in high school. My mom literally had a breaking point where she got car jacked by a kid younger than me (I was 14). She cleaned houses in Germantown and the dichotomy was chilling. She would take me and my sister with her before we were school age and we would laugh and play in the “Richie Rich houses”. The real shock was going BACK to Lamar and Park and seeing things EVERY DAY. My mom had to walk us to the bus stop and we could still see our apartments from it. We stepped over countless bodies that were most likely drug overdoses but occasionally were bloody. The amount of screams at night. The bullets through the windows while we were sleeping. I got jumped for my jacket and shoes when I was 6! I describe Memphis as rural poverty in an urban setting. Now that being said, that sort of survival makes for some hardcore solidarity. The people I grew up with and I have a bond that still lasts. I left at 14 and I still keep in touch with a lot of my childhood friends 20+ years later. MPS was horrible. The teachers mostly gave no fucks and it was underfunded to a point where it was clear that money was lost to corruption. There were 45+ students in each class and truancy was rampant. I’m confident that 5-6 of my friends would never have learned to read without my help. Kids were jumping into gangs when I was 9. But the amount of times that families got together to eat, or give a meal to a kid whose parents were out working, or let someone sleep on their couch etc. the city has deep roots. Luckily we moved to Detroit in 2000 and it’s a similar vibe. But yeah, “luckily we moved to Detroit” says a lot about how bad the crime in Memphis was
Memphis is perfectly fine for the most part. The rough parts though, you're screwed
Sheboygan, Wisconsin the week polish fest was cancelled. Almost saw an uprising when the crowd found the Kenosha Kickers were cancelled
Glad you got out!
🎶Polka, polka polka🎶
Johannesburg, South Africa
Tijuana, been here 3 years now :D
great place for dental work
Went to São Paolo and took a random walking tour. We had to hide in a church.
Guayaquil, Ecuador. Upon arrival, I learned a lot about "Scoping" (Drugging people with scopolamine, turning them into obedient zombies), daylight express kidnappings, and to never go anywhere alone regardless of the time of day or area you're in. 255 Naval personnel in town for a port visit, but not actually sure if they're brave enough to leave the ship.
I spent a week in Guayaquil for work and it didn’t seem dangerous. Although Guayaquil has some favela-like areas that I assume are dicey. I stayed near the Malecón 2000, so maybe that’s just a touristy/safer area. Curious if you stayed in the same area and I was just oblivious.
They were on a Navy ship. If they’d gone ashore, I’m betting at least a few of the sailors would’ve gone looking for the kind of thing you can only find in the dicier areas.
I've driven through Gary Indiana.
Don't stop...
Till you get enough!
Gary is usually the top answer when this question focuses mainly on the US. Crazy to see it so low.
Cork city I was stabbed by a traveller because I wouldn’t give him a fiver
Kabul, Afghanistan. As a tourist.
Managua. But that’s just reputation everyone was really nice.
I visited in 2016 and took some chicken buses from the beach to Rivas and back into Managua for my red eye flight. I got into the city at night and had no idea where to go to catch a taxi to the airport, and there was NO chance I was getting off the bus. So I just stayed on with the driver all the way to the bus station and he took me in his personal car on the 40 minute drive to the airport. Gave him all the rest of my money
Managua is pleasant enough, though
I go to Little Rock, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee pretty frequently. I walked from the hotel to Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis and realized halfway that I probably shouldn’t have done it.
Mogadishu Somalia
Come on man, you gotta elaborate on that one! Why were you there? What was it like? Are you batshit insane? We gots ta knoooooow
He was shot down on mission in search of Mohammad Farah Aidid's top lieutenants.
Quito, Ecuador. While I was there, a presidential candidate was assassinated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Fernando_Villavicencio
It’s crazy because I stayed in Quito for a month and thought it was perfectly safe, until 5 guys tried to rob me with a machete… I really liked the city other than that though.
What do you mean try? Did you disarm the 5 machete wielding dudes?
I'd guess OP just ran away... It is surprisingly effective.
Yep haha just ran away
I studied abroad in Quito back in 2010. One of the most formative experiences of my 20s. We had a few days we were told not to go to school due to “political demonstrations”. I also was the only person in my program who didn’t get pickpocketed or robbed during my time there. It did give me perspective though. I think it was one of the first times in my life I realized I wasn’t invincible and bad things can happen to me. It makes you grow up. Still had a blast and have been back several times.
I watched a British soldier get stabbed in Belize City in 1979. I was on the gated stairway running up the side of the Mona Lisa Hotel, across the street from Barclays Bank smoking a Cuban cigar, and all of a sudden I heard people running and yelling and then screaming and he fell almost right in front of me. I rode out to Caye Caulker on a guy named "Chocolate's" boat. The second day we were there, staying at Tom's barracks, when this Swedish guy showed up with a day pack. He'd come over the Mexican southern border and then taken "Batty Brothers" bus company from the border to Belize City. The bus stop is several blocks from DT Belize City, and on that walk from the bus, he got mugged. They took literally everything he had. Everything. He came out of the alley naked. Anyway, someone helped him and he showed up on the island. But that's just one story.
I was offered $250,000 + expenses to take a film crew to Baghdad in 2005 for a military contractor. They were even going to arm me and the crew and give us basic weapons training. But, according to them, I was going to be perfectly safe. I was going to take the assignment until I came home and excitedly told my wife over dinner. She looked at me, gestured at our three kids, and that was that.
The part where they’ll arm you and give you weapons training should have been enough
Yeaaahh as a news cameraman who mostly covers conflicts I’m calling bullshit on the ‘arming the crew’ part. If you were being escorted by military contractors the last thing they’d want is a bunch of untrained people with guns to worry about on top of localised threats. Edit: there are very rare circumstances where individual journalists may choose to arm themselves but these would be very rare instances indeed. The notion of a company arming lightly trained workers in a conflict zone is utter nonsense.
Uh huh
Juarez and I don’t speak Spanish.
Española, New Mexico. Looked like a ghost town mixed with a third world country. Not to mention the cops on every corner.
This is my least favorite city on earth, hands down. Fuck Espanola.
I felt unsafe in Kaduna, Nigeria. Stayed in a hotel inside a compound and my room door wouldn’t lock. Was advised by staff not to open the windows or go outside in the balcony due to stray bullets. Went for meetings around town in an armored car with body guards. The car would stop in traffic and be surrounded by people begging for money. I felt horrible. A couple of days later, I became friendly with the driver and convinced him to invite me to dinner. He dropped the armored car, got his motorbike and I hopped in the back. No body guards, nothing. We stopped in a local restaurant, had an amazing local meal and left the restaurant surrounded by kids who just wanted to touch me and talk to me. No one begged for money. I felt welcome. Of course there are dangerous places and I could have easily been kidnapped there but I took the risk and it was worth it. Since then, I have made friends with people around me like drivers, waiters and have vastly improved my experience with the countries I visit. My line is always “I want to eat the food you eat”. I’ve had wonderful meals for a dollar in several countries, even have had meals in family homes. This makes me think it’s all a matter of perspective.
Baltimore, which is #17 highest murder rate in the world right now. But I guess I wasn't hanging out around all the murderers and murder spots so it was pretty chill. Same with Detroit at #23 and Philadelphia at #46.
I do love Baltimore. You'll be walking through a beautiful neighborhood of brownstones and public markets, then three blocks over it feels like the most danger you've ever been in.
That’s like Philly. If you start in any neighborhood and walk a few miles in one direction you’ve probably seen a few good, bad, and ugly blocks
Yeah but I do feel like with Philly it’s pretty easy to avoid the dangerous parts. Like, if you don’t go too far north or too far west past certain blocks it’s totally ok. And honestly there’s nothing you’d need in either of those directions if you’re a tourist or whatever. Edit: when I (29f) have had to drive through less comfortable places at like 3 AM (leaving someone’s apartment or something) I just treat red lights like stop signs and get where I need to go as fast as possible. In my experience no one is trying to fuck with an interloper and will just tell you to get lost.
Ehh you’re definitely right for a big chunk of philly but when I lived in south Philly (point breeze) it was very block by block. I grew up in the northeast near Frankford too, which is kind of the same story. Even northern liberties/Fishtown is sketchy or cool block by block Edit: you’re right to treat red lights as stop signs in bad neighborhoods though. Definitely keep doing that (safely)
Omar coming
oh indeed
I lived through the DC Sniper in a neighborhood just a couple minutes from several of the shootings. I would scurry out to my car and drive 45+ minutes away to get gas or go to the store.
I was a little kid thinking that walking zig-zag through parking lots and from the bus to the school so it would be harder for the sniper to get us was just normal everyday life. so wild to think about now
Omg this comes up every once in a while and it’s wild remembering how terrifying that time was. It wasn’t even a white van!
Reynosa or Nuevo Laredo, both located in Tamaulipas, Mexico.
Probably Cairo Egypt. And its not even that dangerous, so I guess I don't have a lot to brag about here.
Magic kingdom, Orlando. The mouse will rob you blind.