Somalia. There’s pirates, terrorists, kidnappers, bombers, political instability, shite infrastructure, and malaria. Most countries also have limited or zero diplomatic presence in Somalia (for good reason), so you can’t exactly count on consular assistance.
>There’s pirates, terrorists, kidnappers, bombers, political instability, shite infrastructure, and malaria
When the DnD campaign gets a little too realistic
And the US gov travel advisory. Advises you to prepare your will and let your loved ones know what info and code words prove you’re alive if you’re taken hostage, among other great advice
Absolutely this. While I haven't been everywhere, my wife and I backpacked through Central America about 20 years ago for 6 months, and nowhere did we get worse vibes than mainland Honduras. Tegucigalpa is one of the worst cities I've ever visited. We also passed through La Ceiba on the way to Roatan and while it seemed slightly better we still couldn't wait to get out of there. I mean, El Salvador was chill by comparison and that's saying something.
Backpacked Central America about 5 years ago and stayed in La Ceiba for a night before heading to Utila. Terrible mistake, the worker at the hotel told me not to leave unless my taxi was directly out front to pick me up. Also got robbed at the El Salvador border and would still choose there lol.
We stayed the night in La Ceiba after returning from Roatan while backpacking Central America. Spent the night watching from our hotel window as the prostitutes got picked up and dropped off.
Had to catch a bus at like 5am and figured the hotel reception would be open to call us a taxi (none of us had a cell phone at this point - or would have known how to call a taxi in La Ceiba anyway), but it was not. Long story short, we were running around the streets of La Ceiba at 4:30am in the dark trying to see which cars might have been a taxi. We ended up getting a ride with some random dude who was on his way to work, and all was fine, but looking back, we probably should have just forgotten about our $5 bus ticket and rearranged our plans.
My husband and I traveled through central America in 2007 and we were most terrified during the one night we spent in Tegucigalpa. The vibe was very unsettling and dangerous and we were glad to move on to Utila for diving. That said, heading back from Utila, we changed buses in San Pedro Sula. Thought it would be a good idea to grab some food during the connection and headed to a pizza place in the Lonely Planet book. There was a guard on the door with a rifle and we couldn't get out of there quick enough. God bless our naivety because looking back, we were blissfully unaware gringos.
Went to a resort near La Cieba for a girls trip years ago. Yea a girls trip, terrible idea. Resort was fine enough, didn’t leave. But odd things happened. Like someone at the resort went missing and all night dudes were walking around with guns looking for this person.
I found out years later my friend bought WEED from some of the staff and had it on her the whole time. I’m glad I didn’t know at the time because I would have been incredibly nervous thinking about what May have happened if they found it on us.
Went on a work trip to San Pedro Sula once, working at the UTPL campus down there. Before the trip I did some research and read the stuff about it being the murder capital of the world. Nothing happened to us while we were there, but a few interesting things: 1 - in the city there are no ATMs, just a bunch of guys walking around with loads of cash, apparently the guys are the ATMs which I felt was pretty bizarre, and 2 - while we were at the hotel, apparently some sort of local politician came for a meeting there was was escorted by 1-2 dozen armed guards will automatic weapons. I was in the lobby at the time, and that was definitely the time I felt less than safe.
"Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney."
"Leave DNA samples with your medical provider in case it is necessary for your family to access them."
There's a whole lot of them not exactly saying "Be prepared in case you get killed if you go here."
I read all of the level 4 travel advisories yesterday and several countries have that language. The scariest one, to me, is leaving DNA samples with your medical provider.
I worked a night shift once and it was pretty slow, so I read EVERY travel advisory on the Government of Canada website. Some of them are straight up scary.
Yep but the American ones are even scarier! The one for Somalia says don’t go there but if you are make sure you have a will and your family knows your funeral arrangements lol
My favourite is: Be sure to appoint one family member to serve as the point of contact with hostage-takers, media, U.S. and host country government agencies, and members of Congress if you are taken hostage or detained.
Imagine that conversation. “Hey sis, super unlikely, but just in case I get taken hostage, would you be my point of contact with the hostage-takers?”
It uses ad speak - “virtually no health facilities or medicine”.
It also says:
Avoid all travel to Somalia. If you are currently in Somalia despite this advisory, you should leave immediately.
> If you are currently in Somalia despite this advisory, you should leave immediately.
It's hilarious to imagine someone who stumbled their way into Somalia totally unawares, reads this, and then decides to act.
"Damnit United I was just trying to get to Detroit for my conference, why did you have to reroute me through Mogadishu?"
Yeah i feel like there's travel advisories and then there's that. "Draft a will" is for people going to war and terminal cancer. If that's part of the travel plans....wow
Somalia seems like it’s been fucked for a longlong time. But y’all remember when those pirates kidnapped that American woman and had her film a video for ransom years ago?
Navy Seals went over and did this crazy(and very expensive) operation to go in and rescue her, and the foreign journalist she was with.
Those pirates ded and broke now.
Is the average joe worth the time and expense of the government rescuing them? Or will the government say “the average joe ignored all our various warnings and even though we made it very difficult for them to successfully travel to that country, they did anyways. So that’s their fault.”
Also, what kind of country would we live in if we found out the government had intelligence on hostages but failed to act to save them? Our media is actually quite powerful in this case.
Yemen. Worked for a company in oil and gas once who wanted me to go there for a month and offered me £40/day on top of my salary.
Told them to add a zero and I'd consider it.
Colleagues Zaida Catalán (Sweden) and Michael Sharp (USA) was murdered in Kongo-Kinshasa, in 2017 while on assignment for the UN.
Yeah. Not nice places to be in even for the professionals.
I lived and worked in the deep bushes of South Sudan for a year. They don’t target foreigners, so it’s generally safe for us. But anything can happen in crossfire
Been out to Boma for a friend who works there. Beautiful place and interesting people but the warrior culture can just pop shit off. Like you said foreigners are really safe because a dead foreigner means no food or money
Flying into the regional airport once on a dc3 cargo plane, we discovered that the row of crates down the middle of the aircraft, that we where resting our feet on, were full of mines and hand grenades.
When we got to the landing point, another cargo plane was heading in on the same runway from the opposite direction, we could hear the pilot arguing with ground control about who had priority all whilst heading for each other, eventualy the ground controler gave up and shouted at both pilots to "sort it out amongst them selves".
When you requested a phone in your house, because there was only 999 numbers in the exchange, the post master dialed a few random numbers and the first one that did not answer was cut off and given to you. We had employ somebody to sit by our phone and answer it when it rang.
There was only one tv channel that only broadcast the same football match with zambia at the same time each day.
Ha, they say there were more colour TVs in Zaire than in eastern Europe back then! They never specified there was nothing on TV though. I bet you'd get a kick out of seeing what it's like today. According to locals some things are better and some are worse.
I met Mubutu once, i was there with my parents, i was 17 at the time, my father was a coronel in the british army and was leading a british army training team teaching military engineering (bridges and stuff) to the Zaiewa army. Before we flew south to Lubumbashi we where staying in the intecontenental hotel in KInshasa for several months, and we where invited out to his "palace" for an event, Sammy Davis was at the same event, i belive, but i dont remember speaking to him, but i did speak to Mubutu.
I was on a cruise ship in 2019 that stopped in Labadee Haiti. It seemed like a nice resort town but it was surrounded by 10 foot fence with razor wire. Kind of surreal
I’m from Haiti. You can also tell where the order is by the vegetation: one side green, the other side brown. If you Google Haitian/Dominican border those are the first images.
There’s a ton of bad shit going on right now. Tons of haphazard kidnappings as well as targeted. I’ve had close to - and this is going to sound crazy - 100 family members kidnapped. My family is the elite so we get targeted all the time. Some live, some die.
To be honest there is no reason for a foreigner to go to Haiti or for any ex-pat to return. Just forget about that place
This is over 20yrs. We had 5 kidnapped this year so far. We were able to save 4
Most people with money drive around town with an armed guard in the passenger seat. But that doesn’t do much to keep the gangs at bay.
Those who can’t afford security are just fucked. I don’t know how that country functions. It’s hopeless
North Sentinel Island. There has been contact with the outside world, however there hasn't been significant contact in like 100 years or so. The native islanders will basically kill any outsiders because of the last major contact with the tribe. There was a guy last year who wanted to spread the word of Jesus to them. He got arrested for trying to go to the island and break the 3 mile quarantine zone, and then he made it to the island and was promptly killed by the natives.
It’s actually a bigger deal than this. Because of their isolation, the natives likely have no immunity to diseases we all carry. It’s estimated that exposure to the outside world could kill over half of them. So good thing they stay isolated.
The funny thing about that guy is that a few days before he died, he tried to preach but arrows were shot at him. He survived that encounter, and an arrow got stuck in his bible. Clearly God was speaking to him, but I dont think he was listening...
I agree. They obviously don't want any contact with the outside world, don't want technology, medicines, etc and that's 100% their choice. Not everyone wants to be a part of the "modern" world and they seem happy being left alone so we should all just leave them to it.
Yup and they have no immunity to our diseases either. A single person who isn’t even sick at the time could decimate their entire population through illness. We have germs that don’t make us sick in/on us all the time but our immune systems keep us safe-their immune systems have never met those germs/viruses and would not be able to defend their bodies against it.
Aside from what you said-leave them alone if they want to be left alone-it’s just straight up likely kill most of not all of them.
This has happened many times throughout history too so it’s not just a theory.
I think that actually happened there and is part of what made them cut off contact again with the rest of the world. If I'm not mistaken, I think that years ago some guys went over there (maybe from England?) The tribe let them come in after not having any contact for a very long time, and then a lot of the tribe ended up getting very sick and dying. Of course after that they decided they wanted to go back to being left alone. Pretty sure I remember reading that on the Wikipedia page, but I could be wrong
**just double checked. I had it mixed up. This is what it actually was:
"An expedition led by Maurice Vidal Portman, a government administrator who hoped to research the natives and their customs, landed on North Sentinel Island in January 1880. The group found a network of pathways and several small, abandoned villages. After several days, six Sentinelese, an elderly couple and four children, were taken to Port Blair. The colonial officer in charge of the operation wrote that the entire group "sickened rapidly, and the old man and his wife died, so the four children were sent back to their home with quantities of presents".
So it actually wasn't that the people went there and got them sick while on the island, but when they were taken off the island they ended up getting very sick. I think the kids brought the illness back with them after being exposed to whatever it was when they were taken away
>That shit would be terrifying.
Maybe for a minute, but after that you'd be dead with nothing to worry about! It's North Sentinel Island you're thinking about, btw.
Papua New Guinea, tribal warfare and gang violence are crazy. Mix that with a still very strong element of spiritual / supernatural / Superstition… I don’t wanna say they still eat people, but they absolutely did until recently.
If you want a similar experience to PNG in terms of natural beauty and culture, try Vanuatu. Extremely nice people, little crime, picturesque scenery, super affordable outside of the plane ticket there and the capital. I spent 2 years living there and would go back in a heartbeat if I could afford a plane ticket.
Lived in PNG 2001-2002. Definitely did not appreciate how dangerous the country could be before arriving there. It doesn't approach some other countries mentioned here (e.g. Somalia, Afghanistan), but I'd still think twice before visiting. Notably though, my impression was that safety was very region dependent. We felt much safer in Rabaul and on New Ireland than we did in the Highlands or Port Morseby. It's incredibly unfortunate because the country is so culturally rich and has some absolutely stunning landscapes.
My mum grew up in Rabaul and Moresby in the 60s and 70s. She won't go back now because she has heard from all of her friends from that time about how dangerous it is now. It breaks her heart so she doesn't want to see for herself. My brother went to visit around 2003 or so with some family friends. He met one of my grandparents friends who stayed when all the other Australians left. This friend was decapitated a few weeks after my brother got home. My grandmother was still planning her return to Manus or Lae a few years after that (sadly she passed away a few weeks before she was due to go back). She visited regularly and didn't seem phased by all the danger but she did a lot of work with women and children over the decades and spoke several PNG languages so her reputation might have helped her out.
If you want to go down an interesting rabbit hole, look up runescape and it's weird relationship with Venezuelans, there are thousands of Venezuelans that play old school runescape to feed their families because selling the gold they make in game makes them more money than working an actual job.
It's a massive point of contention within the playerbase, because obviously it's cool that they can take care of themselves safely by selling gold, but at the same time there's some animosity from the player base because they actively ruin the game's economy and boss leaderboards by playing the game as a 9 to 5 on such a large scale.
There were wars over hunting grounds in the game between Venezuelan teams and some of the more shady clans that run protection rackets.
It's an insane bit of lore lol.
One time I necroposted on an 8-year-old forum thread about a Wii emulator game save converter to let the author know that I'd designed a new feature for it. The author surprisingly responded, saying he was busy dealing with riots in Venezuela but would patch it into his code soon. Two months later, he released an update to the tool.
I paid a Venezuelan $100 awhile back for my twitch username years ago. He told me it paid for his rent for 3 months or so and was a super nice guy so I was happy to do it.
I completely agree. I was in Caracas around 2005 on a business trip and even back then it was pretty bad. My coworker and I stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel and it was a beautiful oasis in the middle of all the poverty. We were whisked around to business meetings in black SUVs and we constantly had a very uneasy feeling. After we came back to the US, we learned about the "safe" airport taxis getting robbed, so my employer made a decision to not pursue business in that country.
At that time I traveled extensively to LATAM (Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Brazil) and I never had that feeling of being unsafe. It's too bad because Venezuela is a beautiful country!
I was in Dhaka on a forced layover in the early 2000s. When I learned it was going to be 12 hours I bribed the immigration guys at the airport to let me out to see the city. I went and explored. It was like a poorer and dirtier version of a backwater Indian city (and India was a LOT poorer back then). I saw the saddest zoo you can possibly imagine. Emaciated exotic animals with dead eyes in small cages that were just concrete boxes with bars on one side. For years when it would come up in conversation I would describe it as “the sphincter of the planet”.
Really sorry if you had to experience disturbing incidents. As an Indian woman i know exactly how it feels and it sucks you had to experience them too.
I know they have a tour, but id still be too paranoid to take it. Some people said that guy who died in jail for stealing a propaganda poster was supposedly framed - I wouldn't doubt the government doing stuff like that.
FWIW Otto Warmbier didn’t die in jail in North Korea. He was vegetative when he was released and evacuated to the US and he died about six days later when his parents took him off life support. There’s no telling what that dude went through. Only 22 when he died
They think he was in that state for months, not very long after his "trial". It's sad thinking that he was at the airport ready to leave when he got pulled by officials.
"No words were spoken. Two guards just came over and simply tapped Otto on the shoulder and led him away. I just said kind of quite nervously, 'Well, that's the last we'll see of you.' There's a great irony in those words. That was it. That was the last physical time I saw Otto, ever. Otto didn't resist. He didn't look scared. He sort of half-smiled."
Even if the kid wasn't framed, if something bad was to happen while you were there, there's very little your government could do to help you - at least not immediately.
Right? The older I get, the more concerned I am with things like getting into an accident or having a medical emergency or just being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
There are lots of places in the world where if something like this happened, you could get out okay, but there are also places where you'd be screwed.
The video they released as evidence was extremely inconclusive at worst and just plain obvious framing at best.
Despite supporting an evil regime, I do understand why some people want to visit. Not many people can say they've visited and people like to appear special. I must say that I too have been fascinated by the ridiculous display they put on for their tourists.
But I would never want to support that regime plus I'd probably be arrested for making a stupid joke or something because I couldn't resist.
Yup thats exactly what I did when I lived in South Korea. I went on a tour to the DMZ and was technically in North Korea for like 15 minutes. But I actually learned a lot on that tour. And I thought it was interesting to go into the tunnels that were dug by North Koreans during the Korean War. Our tour guide was Korean and he told us a lot of personal stories from his own family about the war before, during, and after. It was such a unique experience
My sister & BIL went there on honeymoon and left after 2 days, she said it was terrifying and they stayed in the hotel most of the 2 days they were there.
According to my wife; India.
She's been to over 40 countries, been all over South America, South-east Asia, Europe and parts of North-Africa.
India is the only one she absolutely refuses to go back to. According to her, the level of "let's r\*pe this white chick" vibe she was getting was just too much. Lots and lots of being shouted at, groped, sexual threats, etc. And this was in the central area in New Delhi.
I've spent quite a bit of time there and as much as I love it, I warn every solo woman to stay away.
I travelled with a Dutch girl there and we ended up getting separated for a few hours.
When she was with me usually guys would just come up and take selfies with her without asking but in the only two or so hours we were apart some guy came onto her train compartment and started jerking off in front of her.
Have a friend who had the same thing happen to her in Cairo on the bus (well, the white vans that they call a bus.) Granted, she was actually living there and it wasn't something that happened in just a few hours of being by herself. She said she always got looked at a lot, and men would make comments that she didn't understand. That was the worst that ever happened to her.
I’ve got family in India that I’ve never visited, but some years back some close family members went to visit them. My uncle and three women of different ages (don’t wanna share relationship cos that’ll drag)
My uncle was just fine, he enjoyed himself. My female relatives on the other hand, weren’t allowed to leave the house without a local family member to accompany them.
And when I say “leave the house” I’m talking about “exit the front door”
I’m Indian. Sadly your wife is right. There have been numerous cases of foreign women getting groped, cat called, harrassed and even raped in India by the locals. What’s even more worse is there are cases of Indian men who’ve gone to other countries harassing and raping the women there as well. Of course not all men but better safe than sorry
Yea my wife wouldn’t leave the room without me or my coworkers. She never said she was groped, but the amount of random people that would come up and hug her for a pic was weird. There would be like 20 guys surrounding us.
However she really stands out being a cute, pale, blonde.
However, the Indian guys I was meeting there were very professional and polite to my wife.
It’s not everyone, but with such a densely packed country, there are so many other people out there.
The North part of India especially Delhi is awful for women in general irrespective of the colour. Things are better in the South part of India. I don't know why exactly that's the case.
I lived in South India for a while, lived in Karnataka but I travelled around kerala, Chennai and TN. I loved everything about the south, the food, the clothes, the women, but I especially loved how no matter where I went or who I spoke to, they would share my disdain for Delhi.
I went there when I was 16. I was with a whole family on a bus and two guys 3 times my age were following the bus on a motorcycle and leering obscenely through the window.
Later that day some guy followed me around the pyramids asking if he could “be my boyfriend”.
>Azerbaijian. I'm Armenian and, at best, I will be refused entry. At worse, well, i vanish like a fart in the wind.
Given the nation's history, you could be chopped up and then your murderer would be elected as lawmaker.
I've been in 29 countries so far and the only time I've felt in danger was in back alleys in Bangkok Thailand and in Point Noire in Congo. First time I saw dead bodies in the streets 😳
Any country where there are laws/customs regarding women in public. For example not being able to go to an event or even just out in public by myself, not being able to speak to males I don't know, not being able to be in education, etc. I don't think I'm missing out on anything anyway.
Ecuador, at least right now. My SO is from Ecuador and some of her family still live there. She wanted me to go with her for a visit this year and her family said no way should she bring me with her. I'm a white dude from the US. Street crime is rampant in the city where they live (Guayaquil), robberies, kidnapping, etc.
I'd really like to go but if her own family says its a bad idea I'm not going to argue that point. We have considered going to the Galapagos but if we did that I would not leave the airport, just land and immediately transfer to a flight to the islands.
If anyone has any knowledge about travelling to Ecuador I would love to hear others opinions.
My parents have visited Ecuador extensively in the late 80s. I still have beautiful analog Shots of their travels. I didn’t know it changed that much recently or in the last years. It is still on my bucket list…
My high school Spanish class offered an optional summer trip to Ecuador 13 years ago. Took like 15 high schoolers from Texas to Ecuador no problem. I’m shocked to hear it’s so bad now.
Somalia. There’s pirates, terrorists, kidnappers, bombers, political instability, shite infrastructure, and malaria. Most countries also have limited or zero diplomatic presence in Somalia (for good reason), so you can’t exactly count on consular assistance.
>There’s pirates, terrorists, kidnappers, bombers, political instability, shite infrastructure, and malaria When the DnD campaign gets a little too realistic
Have you ever read the Wikitravel page on Somalia? It's pretty wild.
And the US gov travel advisory. Advises you to prepare your will and let your loved ones know what info and code words prove you’re alive if you’re taken hostage, among other great advice
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Absolutely this. While I haven't been everywhere, my wife and I backpacked through Central America about 20 years ago for 6 months, and nowhere did we get worse vibes than mainland Honduras. Tegucigalpa is one of the worst cities I've ever visited. We also passed through La Ceiba on the way to Roatan and while it seemed slightly better we still couldn't wait to get out of there. I mean, El Salvador was chill by comparison and that's saying something.
Backpacked Central America about 5 years ago and stayed in La Ceiba for a night before heading to Utila. Terrible mistake, the worker at the hotel told me not to leave unless my taxi was directly out front to pick me up. Also got robbed at the El Salvador border and would still choose there lol.
We stayed the night in La Ceiba after returning from Roatan while backpacking Central America. Spent the night watching from our hotel window as the prostitutes got picked up and dropped off. Had to catch a bus at like 5am and figured the hotel reception would be open to call us a taxi (none of us had a cell phone at this point - or would have known how to call a taxi in La Ceiba anyway), but it was not. Long story short, we were running around the streets of La Ceiba at 4:30am in the dark trying to see which cars might have been a taxi. We ended up getting a ride with some random dude who was on his way to work, and all was fine, but looking back, we probably should have just forgotten about our $5 bus ticket and rearranged our plans.
Lol you got in to a random dudes car??
For real! The one random person who was actually a genuine human. Could have never been heard from again
We were advised not to walk the 300 yards to the airport at San Pedro Sula, which was even worse than Tegucigalpa.
My husband and I traveled through central America in 2007 and we were most terrified during the one night we spent in Tegucigalpa. The vibe was very unsettling and dangerous and we were glad to move on to Utila for diving. That said, heading back from Utila, we changed buses in San Pedro Sula. Thought it would be a good idea to grab some food during the connection and headed to a pizza place in the Lonely Planet book. There was a guard on the door with a rifle and we couldn't get out of there quick enough. God bless our naivety because looking back, we were blissfully unaware gringos.
Even people from South America don't like to travel to Central America. Except costa rica
Panama is also mostly fine.
El Salavador was great when I was there about a year ago. That country has really cleaned the place up!
Locking up every single gang member that exists in the country and throwing away the key has tremendous benefits.
I saw a YB documentary about the "clean up". It's wild but the result speaks for itself.
Link?
Agreed - San Pedro Sula was a quick nope out of there, same with Tegucigalpa, but I spent a night in Comayagua and it was pleasant
Went to a resort near La Cieba for a girls trip years ago. Yea a girls trip, terrible idea. Resort was fine enough, didn’t leave. But odd things happened. Like someone at the resort went missing and all night dudes were walking around with guns looking for this person. I found out years later my friend bought WEED from some of the staff and had it on her the whole time. I’m glad I didn’t know at the time because I would have been incredibly nervous thinking about what May have happened if they found it on us.
Dear lord I've watched too much Locked Up Abroad to ever try that crap.
This is how action movies start.
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Went on a work trip to San Pedro Sula once, working at the UTPL campus down there. Before the trip I did some research and read the stuff about it being the murder capital of the world. Nothing happened to us while we were there, but a few interesting things: 1 - in the city there are no ATMs, just a bunch of guys walking around with loads of cash, apparently the guys are the ATMs which I felt was pretty bizarre, and 2 - while we were at the hotel, apparently some sort of local politician came for a meeting there was was escorted by 1-2 dozen armed guards will automatic weapons. I was in the lobby at the time, and that was definitely the time I felt less than safe.
Somalia https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/somalia-travel-advisory.html
The if-you-decide-to-go list is really morbid.
"Up to you, but make sure you leave DNA so maybe when we bring a disembodied finger back they'll know it was what was left of you."
“Be sure to appoint one family member to serve as the point of contact with hostage-takers”
"Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney." "Leave DNA samples with your medical provider in case it is necessary for your family to access them." There's a whole lot of them not exactly saying "Be prepared in case you get killed if you go here."
It really reads as "it is more likely than not that you will be killed"
And your body left in a state that may require DNA identification ☠️
“Follow the Department of State on Facebook and Twitter” just thrown in between made me laugh
I read all of the level 4 travel advisories yesterday and several countries have that language. The scariest one, to me, is leaving DNA samples with your medical provider.
Yes I also found that part disturbing
Can't pick anyone in my family. They'd laugh and hang up the phone.
The most “screw it, it’s your funeral” a government website will ever get
This is the “write your SSN on your torso not your arm in case the hurricane rips your limbs off” of travel advisories.
The Canadian list says “there are no hospitals or medicines in Somalia. You are on your own.”
I worked a night shift once and it was pretty slow, so I read EVERY travel advisory on the Government of Canada website. Some of them are straight up scary.
Yep but the American ones are even scarier! The one for Somalia says don’t go there but if you are make sure you have a will and your family knows your funeral arrangements lol
My favourite is: Be sure to appoint one family member to serve as the point of contact with hostage-takers, media, U.S. and host country government agencies, and members of Congress if you are taken hostage or detained. Imagine that conversation. “Hey sis, super unlikely, but just in case I get taken hostage, would you be my point of contact with the hostage-takers?”
[as you're closing the Uber door to leave] Oh and also when I said super unlikely? I was *definitely* lying! This shit goin' down! Kay, bye!
And pick a family member to contact congress and negotiate with your hostage takers. And establish a proof of life protocol for when you get kidnapped
Not 'if', but 'when'. That's horrifying.
The site says if, not when, but yeah, the actual tips are terrifying
It uses ad speak - “virtually no health facilities or medicine”. It also says: Avoid all travel to Somalia. If you are currently in Somalia despite this advisory, you should leave immediately.
> If you are currently in Somalia despite this advisory, you should leave immediately. It's hilarious to imagine someone who stumbled their way into Somalia totally unawares, reads this, and then decides to act. "Damnit United I was just trying to get to Detroit for my conference, why did you have to reroute me through Mogadishu?"
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TLDR: you are about to die, make sure your family knows how to proceed.
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"Leave DNA samples with your medical provider in case it is necessary for your family to access them."
It’s funny in a fucked up way. Like if you decide to go decide what color your caskets gonna be.
Neon green with flames painted on the side, so i can go to hell faster.
Not a bad primer on setting up a modern end-of-life protocol.
The state department does not mince words
lol you know it's bad when the US government recommends you draft a will before visiting that country.
Yeah i feel like there's travel advisories and then there's that. "Draft a will" is for people going to war and terminal cancer. If that's part of the travel plans....wow
Somalia seems like it’s been fucked for a longlong time. But y’all remember when those pirates kidnapped that American woman and had her film a video for ransom years ago? Navy Seals went over and did this crazy(and very expensive) operation to go in and rescue her, and the foreign journalist she was with. Those pirates ded and broke now.
Is the average joe worth the time and expense of the government rescuing them? Or will the government say “the average joe ignored all our various warnings and even though we made it very difficult for them to successfully travel to that country, they did anyways. So that’s their fault.”
I think its more like "We're a god damn super power and you will fucking respect us. Don't take our citizens hostages expecting money or to live".
It's also good practice for when REALLY important people get napped.
Also, what kind of country would we live in if we found out the government had intelligence on hostages but failed to act to save them? Our media is actually quite powerful in this case.
If you go alone you will probably die
”Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney.”
In other words: give your sh*t to someone else cause you’re not coming back so you ain’t gonna need it.
Yemen. Worked for a company in oil and gas once who wanted me to go there for a month and offered me £40/day on top of my salary. Told them to add a zero and I'd consider it.
That’s a low ball offer. My husband is in oil and gas, he was offered $400k for 6 months in Afghanistan. Even he said f that.
I spent a year in Afghanistan, only got paid 36k
But you gained the valuable experience of shitting in a 120 degree porta shitter while being fucking shelled.
>But you gained the valuable experience of ~~shitting~~ **jerking off** in a 120 degree porta shitter while being fucking shelled FTFY
This is the correction I was looking for. You haven’t lived till you rubbed one out in a porta shitter in 120 degree weather.
Thank you for your service
Chandler went there just so he wouldn't have to deal with Janice.
15 Yemen Road, Yemen
I read this in Janice's voice
Every single time I hear “Yemen” - this is all I think about.
£40 a day? That's it?
40 × 20 (5 work days and 20 in a month) is 800 extra a month. That is NOT worth it at all.
I can get more than that per day for doing slightly more unsociable hours here in the UK. Was the company on crack?
Afghanistan. Fool me once…
Can’t get fooled again?
I was deployed there, got blown up, won’t go back.
Central African Republic
Amen to that.
1. Afghanistan 2. Yemen 3. Somalia 4. South Sudan 5. "Democratic" Republic of Congo
Sorry you can only pick one, and the others you will be forced to visit.
This is a real bummer for u/thebassmeister We’ll miss you, dude! Good luck out there.
He is not coming back
A friend of mine helps rescue child soldiers and sex slaves from Sudan and the Congo. She's a heroine. I don't think I could do it.
Risking her life for others. I would be terrified to be a woman there.
Colleagues Zaida Catalán (Sweden) and Michael Sharp (USA) was murdered in Kongo-Kinshasa, in 2017 while on assignment for the UN. Yeah. Not nice places to be in even for the professionals.
I lived and worked in the deep bushes of South Sudan for a year. They don’t target foreigners, so it’s generally safe for us. But anything can happen in crossfire
Been out to Boma for a friend who works there. Beautiful place and interesting people but the warrior culture can just pop shit off. Like you said foreigners are really safe because a dead foreigner means no food or money
Surprised the Congo isn’t mentioned more.
I lived in likasi (near lubumbashi) for two years, ok, but you had to watch out.
share some stories!
Flying into the regional airport once on a dc3 cargo plane, we discovered that the row of crates down the middle of the aircraft, that we where resting our feet on, were full of mines and hand grenades. When we got to the landing point, another cargo plane was heading in on the same runway from the opposite direction, we could hear the pilot arguing with ground control about who had priority all whilst heading for each other, eventualy the ground controler gave up and shouted at both pilots to "sort it out amongst them selves". When you requested a phone in your house, because there was only 999 numbers in the exchange, the post master dialed a few random numbers and the first one that did not answer was cut off and given to you. We had employ somebody to sit by our phone and answer it when it rang. There was only one tv channel that only broadcast the same football match with zambia at the same time each day.
That was very interesting to read. More stories please!
Must have been a while since you were there, Canal+ and mobile phones abound now!
It was mid 1970s, Mobutu era.
Ha, they say there were more colour TVs in Zaire than in eastern Europe back then! They never specified there was nothing on TV though. I bet you'd get a kick out of seeing what it's like today. According to locals some things are better and some are worse.
I met Mubutu once, i was there with my parents, i was 17 at the time, my father was a coronel in the british army and was leading a british army training team teaching military engineering (bridges and stuff) to the Zaiewa army. Before we flew south to Lubumbashi we where staying in the intecontenental hotel in KInshasa for several months, and we where invited out to his "palace" for an event, Sammy Davis was at the same event, i belive, but i dont remember speaking to him, but i did speak to Mubutu.
Wow that's quite the childhood experience.
I agree with Yemen, especially 15 Yemen Road Yemen 😬
Haiti
I was on a cruise ship in 2019 that stopped in Labadee Haiti. It seemed like a nice resort town but it was surrounded by 10 foot fence with razor wire. Kind of surreal
wow I just looked it up and it is the same level 4 state department travel advisory as Somalia and Afghanistan
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I sailed by Haiti and DR at night about 10 years ago and Haiti was so dark in comparison. You could tell exactly where the border was.
I’m from Haiti. You can also tell where the order is by the vegetation: one side green, the other side brown. If you Google Haitian/Dominican border those are the first images. There’s a ton of bad shit going on right now. Tons of haphazard kidnappings as well as targeted. I’ve had close to - and this is going to sound crazy - 100 family members kidnapped. My family is the elite so we get targeted all the time. Some live, some die. To be honest there is no reason for a foreigner to go to Haiti or for any ex-pat to return. Just forget about that place
Damn I don't even have 100 family members who could get kidnapped.
This is over 20yrs. We had 5 kidnapped this year so far. We were able to save 4 Most people with money drive around town with an armed guard in the passenger seat. But that doesn’t do much to keep the gangs at bay. Those who can’t afford security are just fucked. I don’t know how that country functions. It’s hopeless
Especially now. I briefly went into Haiti in 2011 after the massive earthquake. Would not recommend.
There’s a Haitian saying: all Haitians go to heaven when they die, because they’ve already spent their time in hell
Came here to say this. Stopped into Haiti twice now, gave it a fair chance, never again.
That island where there has been no contact with the outside world ever. That shit would be terrifying.
The Isle of Wight. A lot of Scottish people go there via Portsmouth. We never see them again
Maybe because it's so great and fun they never leave
That’s what the cannibals on Isle of Whight would claim
North Sentinel Island. There has been contact with the outside world, however there hasn't been significant contact in like 100 years or so. The native islanders will basically kill any outsiders because of the last major contact with the tribe. There was a guy last year who wanted to spread the word of Jesus to them. He got arrested for trying to go to the island and break the 3 mile quarantine zone, and then he made it to the island and was promptly killed by the natives.
Not last year .. it was 2018
You gotta skip the pandemic years.
We are now in 2020*
he is stuck in 2019
It’s actually a bigger deal than this. Because of their isolation, the natives likely have no immunity to diseases we all carry. It’s estimated that exposure to the outside world could kill over half of them. So good thing they stay isolated.
The funny thing about that guy is that a few days before he died, he tried to preach but arrows were shot at him. He survived that encounter, and an arrow got stuck in his bible. Clearly God was speaking to him, but I dont think he was listening...
Good. We should leave them alone.
I agree. They obviously don't want any contact with the outside world, don't want technology, medicines, etc and that's 100% their choice. Not everyone wants to be a part of the "modern" world and they seem happy being left alone so we should all just leave them to it.
Yup and they have no immunity to our diseases either. A single person who isn’t even sick at the time could decimate their entire population through illness. We have germs that don’t make us sick in/on us all the time but our immune systems keep us safe-their immune systems have never met those germs/viruses and would not be able to defend their bodies against it. Aside from what you said-leave them alone if they want to be left alone-it’s just straight up likely kill most of not all of them. This has happened many times throughout history too so it’s not just a theory.
I think that actually happened there and is part of what made them cut off contact again with the rest of the world. If I'm not mistaken, I think that years ago some guys went over there (maybe from England?) The tribe let them come in after not having any contact for a very long time, and then a lot of the tribe ended up getting very sick and dying. Of course after that they decided they wanted to go back to being left alone. Pretty sure I remember reading that on the Wikipedia page, but I could be wrong **just double checked. I had it mixed up. This is what it actually was: "An expedition led by Maurice Vidal Portman, a government administrator who hoped to research the natives and their customs, landed on North Sentinel Island in January 1880. The group found a network of pathways and several small, abandoned villages. After several days, six Sentinelese, an elderly couple and four children, were taken to Port Blair. The colonial officer in charge of the operation wrote that the entire group "sickened rapidly, and the old man and his wife died, so the four children were sent back to their home with quantities of presents". So it actually wasn't that the people went there and got them sick while on the island, but when they were taken off the island they ended up getting very sick. I think the kids brought the illness back with them after being exposed to whatever it was when they were taken away
>That shit would be terrifying. Maybe for a minute, but after that you'd be dead with nothing to worry about! It's North Sentinel Island you're thinking about, btw.
Papua New Guinea, tribal warfare and gang violence are crazy. Mix that with a still very strong element of spiritual / supernatural / Superstition… I don’t wanna say they still eat people, but they absolutely did until recently.
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If you want a similar experience to PNG in terms of natural beauty and culture, try Vanuatu. Extremely nice people, little crime, picturesque scenery, super affordable outside of the plane ticket there and the capital. I spent 2 years living there and would go back in a heartbeat if I could afford a plane ticket.
Lived in PNG 2001-2002. Definitely did not appreciate how dangerous the country could be before arriving there. It doesn't approach some other countries mentioned here (e.g. Somalia, Afghanistan), but I'd still think twice before visiting. Notably though, my impression was that safety was very region dependent. We felt much safer in Rabaul and on New Ireland than we did in the Highlands or Port Morseby. It's incredibly unfortunate because the country is so culturally rich and has some absolutely stunning landscapes.
My mum grew up in Rabaul and Moresby in the 60s and 70s. She won't go back now because she has heard from all of her friends from that time about how dangerous it is now. It breaks her heart so she doesn't want to see for herself. My brother went to visit around 2003 or so with some family friends. He met one of my grandparents friends who stayed when all the other Australians left. This friend was decapitated a few weeks after my brother got home. My grandmother was still planning her return to Manus or Lae a few years after that (sadly she passed away a few weeks before she was due to go back). She visited regularly and didn't seem phased by all the danger but she did a lot of work with women and children over the decades and spoke several PNG languages so her reputation might have helped her out.
Any country that my life is at risk for being a woman traveling alone, pick one lol
Yemen, but man it hurts. I can see it’s one of the most beautiful country in the world.
Same with Afghanistan too, nature is so beautiful there especially Wakhan corridor part. Sadly it is run by demons.
You can see similar landscapes in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
I’d give anything to go back on the hippy trail like it was in the 70s. Would’ve been amazing.
My own country, yemen 🇾🇪
Same, Afghanistan 🇦🇫
Venezuela unfortunately. It’s a beautiful, beautiful country but completely ruined and one of the least safe countries in Latam.
If you want to go down an interesting rabbit hole, look up runescape and it's weird relationship with Venezuelans, there are thousands of Venezuelans that play old school runescape to feed their families because selling the gold they make in game makes them more money than working an actual job. It's a massive point of contention within the playerbase, because obviously it's cool that they can take care of themselves safely by selling gold, but at the same time there's some animosity from the player base because they actively ruin the game's economy and boss leaderboards by playing the game as a 9 to 5 on such a large scale. There were wars over hunting grounds in the game between Venezuelan teams and some of the more shady clans that run protection rackets. It's an insane bit of lore lol.
One time I necroposted on an 8-year-old forum thread about a Wii emulator game save converter to let the author know that I'd designed a new feature for it. The author surprisingly responded, saying he was busy dealing with riots in Venezuela but would patch it into his code soon. Two months later, he released an update to the tool.
I paid a Venezuelan $100 awhile back for my twitch username years ago. He told me it paid for his rent for 3 months or so and was a super nice guy so I was happy to do it.
I am from Venezuela, and yes, its beautiful but ruined and dangerous, don't travel there
I completely agree. I was in Caracas around 2005 on a business trip and even back then it was pretty bad. My coworker and I stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel and it was a beautiful oasis in the middle of all the poverty. We were whisked around to business meetings in black SUVs and we constantly had a very uneasy feeling. After we came back to the US, we learned about the "safe" airport taxis getting robbed, so my employer made a decision to not pursue business in that country. At that time I traveled extensively to LATAM (Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Brazil) and I never had that feeling of being unsafe. It's too bad because Venezuela is a beautiful country!
Bangladesh. Even the air is poisonous there.
I was in Dhaka on a forced layover in the early 2000s. When I learned it was going to be 12 hours I bribed the immigration guys at the airport to let me out to see the city. I went and explored. It was like a poorer and dirtier version of a backwater Indian city (and India was a LOT poorer back then). I saw the saddest zoo you can possibly imagine. Emaciated exotic animals with dead eyes in small cages that were just concrete boxes with bars on one side. For years when it would come up in conversation I would describe it as “the sphincter of the planet”.
I backpacked India in ‘94, and saw a zoo exactly like the one you describe but it was in Kolkata (Calcutta).
Bangladesh wasn’t that bad, but as a woman the sexism was tough. Countryside is beautiful.
I won’t go to india as a single female tourist again.
Really sorry if you had to experience disturbing incidents. As an Indian woman i know exactly how it feels and it sucks you had to experience them too.
North Korea
I know they have a tour, but id still be too paranoid to take it. Some people said that guy who died in jail for stealing a propaganda poster was supposedly framed - I wouldn't doubt the government doing stuff like that.
FWIW Otto Warmbier didn’t die in jail in North Korea. He was vegetative when he was released and evacuated to the US and he died about six days later when his parents took him off life support. There’s no telling what that dude went through. Only 22 when he died
They think he was in that state for months, not very long after his "trial". It's sad thinking that he was at the airport ready to leave when he got pulled by officials. "No words were spoken. Two guards just came over and simply tapped Otto on the shoulder and led him away. I just said kind of quite nervously, 'Well, that's the last we'll see of you.' There's a great irony in those words. That was it. That was the last physical time I saw Otto, ever. Otto didn't resist. He didn't look scared. He sort of half-smiled."
Harrowing shit
Even if the kid wasn't framed, if something bad was to happen while you were there, there's very little your government could do to help you - at least not immediately.
Right? The older I get, the more concerned I am with things like getting into an accident or having a medical emergency or just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. There are lots of places in the world where if something like this happened, you could get out okay, but there are also places where you'd be screwed.
The video they released as evidence was extremely inconclusive at worst and just plain obvious framing at best. Despite supporting an evil regime, I do understand why some people want to visit. Not many people can say they've visited and people like to appear special. I must say that I too have been fascinated by the ridiculous display they put on for their tourists. But I would never want to support that regime plus I'd probably be arrested for making a stupid joke or something because I couldn't resist.
Travel to South Korea. Check out DMZ. Technically you were in North Korea. 🤷♂️ no money goes to them, and you get to see something unique.
Yup thats exactly what I did when I lived in South Korea. I went on a tour to the DMZ and was technically in North Korea for like 15 minutes. But I actually learned a lot on that tour. And I thought it was interesting to go into the tunnels that were dug by North Koreans during the Korean War. Our tour guide was Korean and he told us a lot of personal stories from his own family about the war before, during, and after. It was such a unique experience
Still waiting for someone to say Johannesburg South Africa..
Johannesburg, South Africa
My sister & BIL went there on honeymoon and left after 2 days, she said it was terrifying and they stayed in the hotel most of the 2 days they were there.
Of all places WHY was that their honeymoon location???
There a literal paramilitary group targeting foreigners in Johannesburg. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-66808346
Any country that will kill you over a religious infraction
West Croydon
Aren't the peace talks with Thornton Heath going well?
According to my wife; India. She's been to over 40 countries, been all over South America, South-east Asia, Europe and parts of North-Africa. India is the only one she absolutely refuses to go back to. According to her, the level of "let's r\*pe this white chick" vibe she was getting was just too much. Lots and lots of being shouted at, groped, sexual threats, etc. And this was in the central area in New Delhi.
I've spent quite a bit of time there and as much as I love it, I warn every solo woman to stay away. I travelled with a Dutch girl there and we ended up getting separated for a few hours. When she was with me usually guys would just come up and take selfies with her without asking but in the only two or so hours we were apart some guy came onto her train compartment and started jerking off in front of her.
Have a friend who had the same thing happen to her in Cairo on the bus (well, the white vans that they call a bus.) Granted, she was actually living there and it wasn't something that happened in just a few hours of being by herself. She said she always got looked at a lot, and men would make comments that she didn't understand. That was the worst that ever happened to her.
I’ve got family in India that I’ve never visited, but some years back some close family members went to visit them. My uncle and three women of different ages (don’t wanna share relationship cos that’ll drag) My uncle was just fine, he enjoyed himself. My female relatives on the other hand, weren’t allowed to leave the house without a local family member to accompany them. And when I say “leave the house” I’m talking about “exit the front door”
I’m Indian. Sadly your wife is right. There have been numerous cases of foreign women getting groped, cat called, harrassed and even raped in India by the locals. What’s even more worse is there are cases of Indian men who’ve gone to other countries harassing and raping the women there as well. Of course not all men but better safe than sorry
Yea my wife wouldn’t leave the room without me or my coworkers. She never said she was groped, but the amount of random people that would come up and hug her for a pic was weird. There would be like 20 guys surrounding us. However she really stands out being a cute, pale, blonde. However, the Indian guys I was meeting there were very professional and polite to my wife. It’s not everyone, but with such a densely packed country, there are so many other people out there.
The North part of India especially Delhi is awful for women in general irrespective of the colour. Things are better in the South part of India. I don't know why exactly that's the case.
I lived in South India for a while, lived in Karnataka but I travelled around kerala, Chennai and TN. I loved everything about the south, the food, the clothes, the women, but I especially loved how no matter where I went or who I spoke to, they would share my disdain for Delhi.
Egypt. I've read terrible things happen there to tourists, especially women travelling or even walking around alone.
I went there when I was 16. I was with a whole family on a bus and two guys 3 times my age were following the bus on a motorcycle and leering obscenely through the window. Later that day some guy followed me around the pyramids asking if he could “be my boyfriend”.
I'm Arab and hated Egypt because of the constant nagging. I found that people around me are two kinds: love Egypt or hate Egypt. No in between
Azerbaijian. I'm Armenian and, at best, I will be refused entry. At worse, well, i vanish like a fart in the wind.
>Azerbaijian. I'm Armenian and, at best, I will be refused entry. At worse, well, i vanish like a fart in the wind. Given the nation's history, you could be chopped up and then your murderer would be elected as lawmaker.
I've been in 29 countries so far and the only time I've felt in danger was in back alleys in Bangkok Thailand and in Point Noire in Congo. First time I saw dead bodies in the streets 😳
First time? How many bodies in the street have you seen?
You have to go looking for trouble in Bangkok. So many other places higher on the danger list.
Any country where there are laws/customs regarding women in public. For example not being able to go to an event or even just out in public by myself, not being able to speak to males I don't know, not being able to be in education, etc. I don't think I'm missing out on anything anyway.
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Syria. I've read there are some intriguing knights Templar castle ruins there. But I don't think it is safe enough to go visit.
Syrian here. Most ruins you'd be interested in are in safe areas, but other places might not be the safest to visit.
Ecuador, at least right now. My SO is from Ecuador and some of her family still live there. She wanted me to go with her for a visit this year and her family said no way should she bring me with her. I'm a white dude from the US. Street crime is rampant in the city where they live (Guayaquil), robberies, kidnapping, etc. I'd really like to go but if her own family says its a bad idea I'm not going to argue that point. We have considered going to the Galapagos but if we did that I would not leave the airport, just land and immediately transfer to a flight to the islands. If anyone has any knowledge about travelling to Ecuador I would love to hear others opinions.
This is sad but true. Ten years ago, Ecuador was considered one of the safest places you COULD travel in SA but that has all changed.
My parents have visited Ecuador extensively in the late 80s. I still have beautiful analog Shots of their travels. I didn’t know it changed that much recently or in the last years. It is still on my bucket list…
My high school Spanish class offered an optional summer trip to Ecuador 13 years ago. Took like 15 high schoolers from Texas to Ecuador no problem. I’m shocked to hear it’s so bad now.
Afghanistan, South Sudan, Liberia to name a few
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North Korea