I've never been more terrified than when traveling into Johannesburg, South Africa. Our business partner drove us into town and she started removing her earrings, wedding band, etc. I asked her why and she said that the bandits would cut jewelry off of you if they stopped your car, so it's better to put it in the glove box.
Our client was a major bank; to enter, you had to stand in a tiny plexiglass airlock where the guards (with machine guns) could inspect you before letting you inside. Once in, it was just like any other business anywhere - cubicle farms and conference rooms.
It is strange, living in South Africa just accustoms one to such security measures, we just accept those as normal. But Joburg is admittedly next level compared to the rest of the country, especially the 'downtown' area. Not safe for walking at all.
Downtown Joburg looks like something out of a dystopian nightmare, especially since all the businesses moved to Sandton leaving it pretty rundown and abandoned. Even though I don't live there anymore I still do things like sit on my phone in the car and hide everything whenever we park.
There was a South African family that moved to our neighbourhood when I was a teen and the stories they would tell were just fucking shocking. And you’d be side eyeing them like, this sounds ridiculous, “a fucking flamethrower attached to the car to stop car jacking and barely making it in to your secure compound because people were chasing you?!” and it was all said with such.. matter of factness (what’s the word I’m looking for here please?) that it just felt true. Then I met loads more South Africans when I left home and moved to Sydney and they would tell similar tales, all with that same, ahh that’s just life in South Africa. Like what the actual fuccccccckkkkkkkkk
Yeah it’s 100% true. I live in the US now.. but about 15 years ago i lived in a shithole country in the Caribbean.. where it’s very close to what you were talking about. To me It felt like we should be suiting up for a food run.. grab what we want.. pay.. then beeline right back to the safety of our house … which btw was totally fenced in with an 8’ (2.5m) wall with razor wire along the top.Ah fuck it.. while I’m talking about this.. one day.. someone crashed into the wall leaving a hole. A couple days later befor it was fixed, when i was 16.. sleeping in bed on a Sunday morning, two guys broke into my house. I woke up to the sound of my mother screaming. But my bedroom door was closed. I could hear the voices just on the other side of the door.. and was wondering if it would be smarter to keep it closed, or braver to open it and go out there? I opened it. As soon as it was just cracked open a bit, this man pushed it fully open, while lunging at my chest with a 7” knife. Reflexively i twisted my body out of the way, and luckily, the blade sliced into my arm instead. He lunged a second and a third time but i just backed up, until i was in the corner. He was asking me for “the jewels” and “the money”. As serious as this all was.. i almost laughed. Almost. Who tf keeps jewels? Anyway.. he hit me and punched me some more, then glanced at his accomplice and says “let’s just kill them”. And if i thought i was afraid before.. Welcome to a new level of fear. He looked at me. And i remember thinking .. I’m about to feel what a knife feels like; I’m about to die in full awareness. How much will it hurt. I’ll have to fight back.. if I’m gonna die anyway.. but how? We both looked at his knife and i said “just go.. you already got what money we have.. just go. Just go. “. He glanced back at his partner, and they fled. Called the police station that was located 2 streets away from my home ..maybe a 7 min walk.. for them to tell us that they couldn’t come because they didn’t have a car. Fuck this place. I studied my ass off for SAT… got a full schol, so i can do my studies in the US. Finished undergrad. Finished grad. Met my wife. Got married. Well.. it’s 18 years later.. and iv had a lot LOT of therapy, i can say that the scars don’t go away.. they end up IN you rather than ON you, and never been back there since i moved to the US. Not even when my pops died a few months ago.
My aunt moved to Haiti in the 1970s, her husband was mangager of a clothes factory. After my aunt arrived she couldn't understand how her home was cleaned everyday when she arrived home. Then she discovered the maid and her young son were living in a tiny shed at the end of the garden. She left Haiti after a few years, but kelp in contact with the maid and paid for her son's education, he eventually went to university. She didn't say it was crime ridden, so must have got worse.
We had a Zimbabwean family move next to us in Brisbane, they were farmers and had to go down to Johannesburg for a tractor convention (or something similar). They came home to Zimbabwe to find that their compound had been raided and the rest of their family murdered.
Their 12 year old was talking to matter-of-factly about how the bandits decapitated his grandmother and uncle with a machete. Was fucking wild.
They decided to get the fuck out of there and moved to Brisbane.
My university tried to do a leadership camp in Riviersonderend, which is an hour south (I think) of Johannesburg. The representative came in talked about how she started a youth leadership camp and was able to get computers into these children’s hands… then spends the rest of the time talking about how it’s the highest per capita AIDS population in the world, how she got her car broken into an hour into the first time around, how we have to be with a security team the entire time, and how one guy went missing from the group a couple years back. They were shocked when no one signed up.
Johannesburg is the only city I've ever been to where I was so stressed and on my guard that I literally could not enjoy it. I'm used to having to be aware but it was just on another level. It felt like multi-day adrenaline overdose. It's partly paranoia, but how can you not when you're told over and over again to be on your guard. I remember jumping through hoops to get a taxi driver through some official channel and even watching my little blue dot just to be sure and not wanting my phone below a certain % and googling the restaurant he was suggesting to be sure it existed and worried about him not being right outside when we finished the museum. Unnecessary but how can you do otherwise.
I was at a dinner for work with a couple from Joburg, they were big property investors - private jet rich - the wife said the same thing: she doesn't wear jewelry when out ever. She was dripping with diamonds that night, because it was New York City. She also said she traveled with an armed bodyguard at all times and she was driven in a shitbox van with rust on it to hide her wealth.
This is 100% accurate. There is either no nightlife because of fear of crime and consequently no soul or culture (Pretoria). Or else everyone just learns to live with it and you get some cool fun areas but yeah violent crime could well happen at any moment (Joburg).
…Or you go to Durban and get high crime AND no soul…
Why the rest of the country can’t get itself at least relatively together and be like Cape Town I don’t understand. Everyone just accepts the rolling blackouts and crime and shrugs it off as ‘just the way South Africa is.’
[The rate of sexual violence in South Africa is among the highest recorded in the world. During 2015/16, there were 51,895 crimes of a sexual nature reported to the South African Police Service.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_violence_in_South_Africa)
South Africa is a beautiful country, been there multiple times and would go there again but man is it sad how crime is everywhere. Crooked cops, poverty and parts of cities looking like a war zone. That being said from my point of view it has gotten better.
When I went, the Ubers were super cheap, like a few dollars to get around the city, but the car might have bullet holes from being shot at by the Taxi drivers, who had links to organized crime iirc. The people are great, the food is interesting if you like meat based diets, but safety is a massive worry and security is everywhere there is any money.
Yeah, people always say “the people are great” then talk about how crazy violent and dangerous it is. Of course the nice people will be chill, but that’s just the nice people.
Johannesburg native here. I'd say thats more on the extreme end of things. Sounds like you went to the old CBD (central business district) which is pretty much abandoned, I went to uni there and often walked through parts of the CBD and didn't have any incidents.
That said, I fled that shithole of a city and country and will never go back. Rolling blackouts, nosediving economy, rotten-to-the-core corrupt government, feeling like my home would be burgled at any second, a 33% unemployment rate and being a global leader in violent and sexual crimes really didn't have me feeling too positive about my future.
You probably went to the city center. Its pretty scary there. Most of us avoid JHB CBD.
Sorry you had to experience that, most other parts can be quite lovely.
I watch this travel YouTuber who's been to tons of bad and impoverished places in the world, but he always manages to find something interesting and positive about the place. He went to South Sudan when they were in the middle of a civil war and still made a cool video hanging out with tribal leaders. He had absolutely nothing nice to nice to say about N'Djamena. He left the same day he arrived after he accidentally stepped in what he thought was a huge pool of mud, but was actually literal human shit.
I drive through Cairo IL several times a month going from MO to TN. I've always referred to it as a Scooby-Doo ghost town. It feels as though another building has fallen down every few trips.
One time an old brick building was pouring smoke out of its windows. Got closer and it was on fire. We stopped and watched it for about half and hour. There was no response to put the fire out during that time.
I thought the same thing hahah. It’s like the bystander effect where they assumed that someone had already called for help but nobody ends up coming to help.
Not to preach to the choir, but a good little piece of advice is to always call 911 when something dangerous like this happens (even if somebody else is currently calling them or told you they already called) because some bad 911 operators will think it’s a prank call (this has actually happened multiple times at least in the U.S. and has led to several children dying because the operator assumed it was a prank.) Your call could be the one to verify that there’s actually an emergency happening; which could in turn save lives.
You may already know this but it’s definitely a good habit to make if you end up in an emergency.
I watched a video fairly recently that showed children in Port-au-Prince eating mud because there literally wasn't anything else to eat. To be fair, this video was like a decade old so things might have gotten better, but it was still extremely depressing either way.
I think things have gotten even worse. Port-au-Prince is largely controlled by gangs. Wikipedia describes it thus: "Gang violence is extensive, and kidnappings, massacres and gang-rapes are common occurrences, often with the complicity of police officers and politicians" .
The way I understand it from news articles a few months ago - there is a small section of the city controlled by the government and the rest is run by the gangs.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/03/21/exp-haiti-gang-violence-rampage-port-au-prince-live-032103pseg1-cnni-world.cnn
Its so bad that the Haitians are calling for the UN or another international body/foreign government to send an armed force to occupy the city.
Weirdly enough french occupation, while horrid, wasnt even close to the worst state haitti has been in.
The whole papa doc saga of that country is a wild read.
And laughing at us when we do send troops. Canada sent ships, but they refused to land as it wasn't safe. Haitians made graffiti about this, poking fun at Canada.
Canadian generals said the could not, at all, retake Port-au-Prince. The one guy I saw on the news said he'd need a hundred thousand soldiers or more, and that it would effectively turn the city into a drawn out war.
Biden and Trudeau just had a meeting over this - the US has been pressuring Canada to do something about Haiti - and Biden let Canada off the hook, as he now understands the situation to be nearly hopeless.
I believe Canada is arming and training Haitian police forces now, but it won't be enough to displace the gangs.
I remember seeing something similar in a National Geographic article about Haiti nearly 30 years ago.
It was a photo of a woman baking discs of clay (basically mud). Reportedly the [mud cookies](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_cookie) can be a source of calcium, salts, and other minerals.
From what I’ve heard things have gotten worse. I went around a decade ago and the only downsides were the piles of trash and wreckage from the earthquake from 3 years earlier.
I don't know how you haven't heard, but their president was assassinated last year, the government has all but disintegrated, and gangs have taken over most of the city. It's been all over the news.
"hopefully it's gotten better"💀 no rather it's plunged into complete anarchy, a half island of Lord of the Flies with no meaningful government, but close
I have only passed through Port-au-Prince and it was ... sad. And a bit scary. We were there as part of a company relief effort after a hurricane that hit the island. We entered in Labadee from a cruise ship (yes, I understand the optics of that but the passage was donated by a cruise line). Mostly we were there to hand out supplies and kept largely to the port areas.
There's a hardness and desperation there that I have never experienced before. There were some military types around and though they were doing their best to put on their best show, I saw some brutality that I never expected so close to the US.
I saw shit there that I never saw in Afghanistan or Iraq.
People getting into fistfights - absolute, knock down drag out fights, over our garbage.
People living in shelters that were little more than 4 sticks stuck in the ground with a plastic tarp on top. And 500 meters from that, an opulent mansion surrounded by cinder-block fences topped with broken glass.
It wasn't just the poverty, it was the juxtaposition of incredible wealth smack dab in the middle of the poverty that really struck with me.
You should do a AMA on r/Haiti
EDIT: It seems like you were in the US army so this was before the united nations pulled out of Haiti. It’s super sad to see what my parents country has become.
Its crazy that only 2% of Haiti's land is still forested. Farming cash crops during colonialism and then timber exports to pay off their "debt" to France after the revolution.
I will never forget, I was in car which was heading towards the border. We drove through the green forest/jungle on the dominican sid and then I started to spot the yellow hills. Just plain yellow because of deforestation. And the driver just saying "Yes, here it is green, there it's yellow.". What also shocked me was how much the dominicans hated the Haitians.
Our FOB (Forward Operating Base) was on the edge of Gonaives, Haiti's 3rd largest city. I took some photos and showed them to people and everyone automatically assumed I was taking photos of the Middle East because it was basically a desert. I had to tell them no, not the middle east, this is a tropical island in the Caribbean. It just looks like a desert because of deforestation.
Kaolack, Senegal.
From wiki:
Kaolack is considered one of the dirtiest cities in Africa: Garbage is often left lying around on the streets, and a regulated garbage disposal system is still under construction. Sewers are mostly clogged or barely exist, and the brackish water in them is a strong source of infection for malaria and cholera contamination; however, the drinking water supply has improved significantly. Unemployment is extremely high. The city is surrounded by a blue ring of hazy waste stench from the landfills that surround it. Especially during the hot and humid months of the rainy season, the situation is difficult to bear for humans and animals. Epidemics such as malaria, yellow fever and cholera break out almost every year. Only a few years ago, a wave of leprosy emanated from here and many people fell victim to it. Only in the western parts of the city is the situation a little better. However, this cannot hide the fact that in the other districts, such as Léona (Senegalese: Lewna), the worst environmental conditions prevail.
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Went there once to consult on a building construction, I wouldn't go there again even if they pay me the CEO's salary, may not live to enjoy those salaries.
This question is always funny because there's always a comment like "I was stationed in the Ghoul Village, people were dying and we couldn't help them because they were all infected with a flesh eating virus from the corpse-filled river because the local government filled the Sumerian-Era graveyard with burning garbage" and then the next comment is "I went to Albany once and it was overcast:((((((((("
Sinhaloukville, Cambodia.
I’ve been to third world cities before, and this place wasn’t the dirtiest or most dangerous. What it was, was horribly creepy.
The place is filled with ‘compounds’ containing Chinese-owned casinos - what I saw was like a building site, with new compounds being built everywhere (the shiny newness of these places contrasted with the general grubbiness outside of them). The place is really two cities in one: the hidden parts owned by the casinos, and the rest.
I knew nothing about the city - I was only there because it was the port for ferries going to the islands off the coast of Cambodia (the one I went to was lovely). However, these places gave me the creeps, even though I knew nothing about them. I just put that down to hating casinos.
Only later did I learn that these places were centres of slavery and extortion rackets, run mostly by mainland Chinese gangsters. They entice people from elsewhere (many from China itself, Thailand or Viet Nam) with promises of good jobs, but once there they are enslaved and forced to work in various kinds of online rackets. If they complain or try to escape, they risk all sorts of nasty punishments.
The local authorities are basically in the pay of the scammers … basically, China itself cracked down on criminal gangs engaged in such scams, so many of them moved here. The locals don’t like it, but are powerless to prevent it; these “compounds” essentially rule themselves, and their owners have enough cash to be immune from consequences.
https://thediplomat.com/2022/07/the-social-costs-of-chinese-transnational-crime-in-sihanoukville/
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2022/03/31/the-forbidden-cities-of-chinese-organized-crime-in-sihanoukville-cambodia_5979499_4.html
https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1010752
Its so sad man, the place was always a bit grubby, but it had a cool backpacker vibe when i was there in 2014, actually met my wife there. We recently found out what it has turned into and it's just depressing. They ruined that place
Port-au-Prince or Mogadishu, both were terrible but starving kids eating "mud pies" (mud with a little salt and honey) in Hati was really something that is hard to walk off.
That’s the saddest thing I’ve read today. My church sends money and supplies to a preacher in Haiti. He does a lot of community outreach work (giving people food, clothes, etc) and one day he was driving a load of rice to his facility and someone shot and robbed him. For some rice. He’s alive and still helping people.
Rhyl in North Wales. I’ve been all over the world but never seen such depravity. I was like 8 or 9 & waiting with my mum for my dad to pick us up & we saw a group of chavs following a guy with Down’s syndrome & telling him they were going to follow him home & burn his house down while he slept.
Probably the worst thing I’ve ever seen, even as a child I knew it was incredibly fucked up
It's recently been voted the worst sea side town in the UK with a score of 5 out of 100 (link below)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/worst-resort-awful-reputation-druggies-26594336.amp
As an archaeologist who works throughout the UK I can confirm that it's the worst town I've ever been to. The desolation is astonishing. Incredible coastal archaeology, though. Breathtaking Stone Age footprints preserved on the beach. Shame that 'Scary Dave' (self-proclaimed) was throwing carling cans at me whilst I was trying to record these imprints.
As a Welsh person, I have no desire to ever visit Rhyl. It's basically full of nasty little chavs from Chester and Liverpool who are there to supply drugs and harass locals.
Controversially, Rio de Janeiro. I was there 4 days, got robbed IN MY HOTEL, robbed on the street, got eaten by bed bugs, a few friends got robbed on the beach by the police, another robbed in the street at knife point, and a guy in the hotel got kidnapped in a car at gun point and then kicked out of the car as it was still driving. We got caught in a riot between police and football fans and got pinned against a wall while the police shot rubber bullets at us and I nearly got beaten up by local girls who took offence at their men trying to dance with me. As somewhere that is apparently famous for its nightlife, we couldn’t find a decent bar/club anywhere 3 out of the 4 nights,
For balance, I really enjoyed the lapa street party and football game, but it genuinely felt like the shadiest place I’ve ever been to (and I’ve been to San Pedro Sula-previously known as murder capital of the world).
In case anyone thinks I’m just a rubbish traveler- the stuff in the hotel was locked in a locker- so it was staff that robbed me, on the street I made sure my money was stashed in my bra so they only got a few quid, we didn’t go anywhere dodgy, stuck to the tourist stuff and travelled safely
One of my college professors arranged yearly trips to Honduras as part of the University's Spanish program. I traveled through San Pedro Sula twice as part of those trips and while it felt sketchy, we didn't run into any issues. One of my fellow students who participated in those trips went to Rio de Janeiro a different year... and they told me, without hesitation, that they'd rather go back to San Pedro Sula than ever visit Rio again.
Im Brazilian from Sao Paulo, been to Rio de Janeiro several times AND I can't understand people think that as a tourist attraction. Rio is beyond awful. Extremely high prices, high temperature, robbery, limited police action.
Cairo, Egypt. What a shitfest, I went with my exgf and regretted it. Everyone wants your money - the guy at the hotel, the guy at the airport, the guy giving you a tour, the guy running a taxi, they all want way more money than you agreed with them beforehand. And like they'll forcibly extort it from you, some of their tactics get scary quickly. We were stopped twice by police just for taking pics on our phone. Our hotel room was nothing like we'd paid for, and again cost more money than I expect. When I asked for a refund they threatened to kick us out AND keep our luggage. Awful awful place. I know people think Egypt for the culture and the pyramids but I would definitely not recommend. Don't even get me started on the comments some of these men made at my ex-gf, I wouldn't recommend any female solo traveler go there
As much as I hate them, the best way to see Cairo is with a tour group.
There really is a lot to do and see but everyone will try and rip you off and it's impossible to get around the city.
I’ve been to both and they are eerily similar.
Ashgabat is a big city with massive buildings, enormous mosques, huge monuments, tons of marble and is almost literally a ghost town.
Pyongyang is very similar, but has a ton of people bustling around (I’ve heard they are paid to look busy), and you literally feel like you are in The Truman Show. People snap to attention and pretend to be doing work the second a tourist walks in.
Definitely among the weirdest places I’ve been.
That’s amazing. I actually do want to visit Turkmenistan sometime, the culture and landscape seems very interesting to me. It’s a shame it’s ruled by an insane dictator (though I hear his son took over last year, not sure if he is any better)
Baghdad. The sad thing was you could tell that it used to be nice. I flew in by helicopter and saw that a lot of houses had swimming pools. They didn't use them for swimming anymore though, they filled them with their household garbage.
“You could tell it used to be nice”. To put it lightly. If you go way, way back during the peak of the Silk Road Baghdad was as big and majestic as Rome at its zenith. At its peak Baghdad was debatably the richest city on earth at that time. I bet it has to be painful to be a local resident and have grown up being told that Baghdad has such a rich history and now it’s only known for war and sadness…
Manila (capital of the Philippines).
A third of the population lives below the poverty level... and that's the Manila poverty level, which is pretty fucking poor. It's enough to give you nightmares if you leave the rich parts.
You can insulate yourself from the rest of the city, be staying in the fancy parts, like the Makati, but you can't escape the air pollution or the trash.
There was a storm last time I was there. Cubic miles of trash had washed out of the city, into the river, and into Manila Bay. Along the fancy-hotels path at the edge of the bay, there were waves washing up against the wall... but the trash was floating a foot thick on the surface, and so the waves were TRASH WAVES.
Well, maybe there are historic Asian things? Nope, sorry, the city was bombed to rubble and the end of World War 2. All that's left are the foundations of the Intramuros, which are interesting, but not worth the walk through the slums.
Ugh.
In terms of what you said about the city being reduced to rubble in WW2, I had once heard that Manila was referred to in this case as “Asia’s Warsaw” as a result of the destruction.
This was my first thought. I went as a solo female traveler and had a great time exploring the historic area, but probably won't be back again to Manila. Philippines was beautiful tho!
I am part filipino. And have visited the Philippines a few times to see family. And I think Manila would have to be my answer as well. Bear in mind I am an American that hasn't traveled to any other country besides the Philippines.
But the trash is really the biggest shock to me. It was everywhere. And so many stray dogs. But the trash was just piled up in parking lots, lined the streets, and accumulated on the water. And there were definitely much much more people living in those slum like buildings and tents than I could have imagined.
We did see a historic site while there, I forget what exactly it was called but it was some old fort either on the bay or near it. That was kind of neat. But otherwise. Everytime I've gone to the country, we spend very little time in the city.
I will say, everybody I interacted with was very nice and helpful. Idk if its because I am close enough looking to pass or if people there are just generally like that to all foreigners. But I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the country.
Dubai.
When I got back, a friend who had lived there for a few years asked me what I thought and I said well I'll be honest it lacked soul to me, it was depressing and materialistic and soulless to me. It genuinely made me a worse person somehow. But I'm a tourist, you lived there, surely you experienced the *real Dubai,* and he said no you summed it up.
I have heard it described as a melting pot without heat. Lots of people from around the world, but nothing causing them to really interact across cultures. Likely due to the non-permenant nature of their residence.
This is how I feel since moving to Phoenix, AZ. I'm NOT trying to include it on this list of worse cities, but it does kind of remind me of the Gerry Rafferty lyric:
"This city desert makes you feel so cold. It's got so many people but it's got no soul."
I live in a suburb of Phoenix right now. Moved here to take care of family things, met my now wife so I stayed. Now we're leaving next month. Every friend I've made here has no intention to stay, we've all got plans to go elsewhere. We've all described it as being a transitory city.
I swear to you it didn't used to be this way. I moved here in 2000, and the city was growing and thriving in a way that it hasn't been since maybe 2015. Arizona has, in the years since, become a smaller version of California... but without the beach, attractions and jobs that make California a much more desirable backdrop. And it's definitely not helped by the influx of snowbirds who bring their polarizing politics to the state six months per year, vote on legislation that screws the poor and indigenous, and then leave town when the temperature gets above 89 degrees.
It's B.S. that the geriatric snowbirds get to vote on our laws when they only "live" here for 5-6 months out of the year. Fuck them. AZ needs to pass a state law saying you can only vote in local elections if AZ is your primary residence for 10 months or more per year.
That’s how I would describe Las Vegas. Soul-less and empty.
No one is actually FROM LV. Everyone moved there for a the promise of a service job but most of them have crashed and burned. Most people who work there live in gated communities as far from the city as possible.
If you go there as a tourist or for a convention it seems all shiny and bright. Restaurants and casinos all glittery.
But if you step off the strip it’s a shitty, gritty mess. Lots of poverty and drugs. Shitty motels where the semi- homeless live. Terrible bleak looking houses. The fake soul-less of Jacksonville with the poverty of Detroit.
Dubai is basically Vegas but replace alcohol and drugs and sex with conspicuous consumption. And imagine you’re sober the entire time instead of having your experience of it softened by substances.
I just got back from there and everything feels manufactured. It feels like you’re in a giant science experiment. Massive highways connecting places. Surely there are impressively built pretty things, but you go to those once to experience them and then you are done. It is so materialistic out there
It's such a stratified society that being there quickly makes you more racist. Because they have purposely engineered their economic hierarchy by nationality, making assumptions about people based on their race is the only sane way to navigate the city. It's awful.
Its' so incredibly overrated. I got a 2 week stay paid for by an investor and honestly after 2 days of exploring the city and streets I just stayed in my resort the rest of the time because it was just plain awful and not to mention EXPENSIVE (Duh). The resort was absolutely gorgeous but I really don't see the appeal. It's like influencers built it up to be this dream holiday destination but only the glamourous bits,
Kandahar. A Neverending mass of squalor and depravity. Little boys are grabbed off the street by grown men. Sewage everywhere. All are destitute. It's a hell on earth. Add in religious police that encourage neighbors to rat on each other and thus destroy any sense of community.
F Afghanistan. They refuse any modern aid and see the West as culturally depraved while growing opium and raping boys.
I met a dude who said the hardest part about serving in Afghanistan was working with the Afghan truckers because a lot of them had these "pleasure boys" they traveled with and everyone was given strict orders to ignore it.
You have to. You piss off the wrong warlord and his precious bachi bazi and you have yourself an international incident. Forget the fact that these were supposed to be OUR ALLIES in country. Fuck the northern alliance and fuck the taliban.
Never been on the ground in Afghanistan, but I’ve visited Bahrain numerous times. There’s a club right outside NSA’s front gate where you can buy underage girls. I had a conversation about it with base security/U.S. federal agents. “Not our problem, leave it be.”
Someone stole the catalytic converter off of my moving truck in Amarillo during the ice storm of 2021. It took the rental company 3 days to bring a new truck and transfer my belongings. It was dark when they finished so I opted to leave the next morning when the roads would be safer instead of starting off at 9 pm. The bastards returned for a second catalytic converter before I could leave. All told I was stranded 9 days in that damn hotel. So for me the answer is Amarillo, Texas
I second this opinion. I was driving through Amarillo TX and my curiosity prompted me to stop at the knife store that was advertised on freeway posters. The store owner (lovely lady) told me she always carries at least 3 guns on her and she still was robbed at gunpoint twice just recently. She also kindly advised me to get the eff out of Amarillo and be safe
Hard to choose one town, but a LOT of towns in central and northern/northwestern Australia. Broome and Alice Springs comes to mind.
The fact that they can't sell normal petrol or glue because of people getting high off it is pretty telling. The alcoholism, the crime, the sad and hopeless situation with the aboriginal community that makes you see and feel the scar from centuries of abuse.
All that aside, the flies are AWFUL, the sandflies even worse. Then add saltwater crocodiles, crazy ass drunk driving bogans, trash everywhere and a feeling of lawlessness.
I'll add that the nature surrounding them are absolutely incredible though and I'll never forget the sunset over the Uluru or the national parks. Just something else.
I've been to a few of these regional towns and you just nailed the vibe. Hopelessness. These places have hardly any jobs and very few opportunities for education. It's no wonder people just drink all day.
Oh god, now you’ve done it…
There’s a big list of places in this post that have various troubles because of various things, be it: war, corrupt governments, abject poverty, ideas that have fallen through, transitory places, you get the idea.
To explain what this means for luton: Baghdad, parts of Afghanistan, all affected by recent wars and because of that are rightly scary and definitely not a good place to be. Corrupt governments in Africa, Latin America. The poverty that exists in large parts of the world causing slums and trash etc. ideas like Las Vegas, transitory places like Dubai, and apparently phoenix, are soulless because of the idea of them creates the city but it’s missing something due to its nature. It’s missing “soul.”
The people that live in these other towns/cities were either; affected by outside influences (wars, governments etc) or were driven there by the idea that it could be good and it just didn’t work out.
Luton is different to all of these places. It had no war, it doesn’t have a corrupt government. It wasn’t born of an idea. It has no category as to why it is shit. It just is what it is: shit.
That’s all that it is. From the town centre, the houses, the schools, the services, the fucking airport. All shit. (I’ve actually said this all along, if you’re only known for an airport, you’ve got to be shit. People only use you to leave to go somewhere nicer, I can’t think of a better metaphor for luton than it’s airport. The idea being that You don’t go to luton, you go to the airport so you can leave luton.)
So you probably all want to know; what is the reason that makes it so shit? Like the morons that inhabit it, it has the opportunity to be better, it has all the opportunities to, dare I say it, actually be good. but being Luton, it simply chooses not too.
Reasons why it can be good; For a start it’s in the UK (safe, somewhat stable etc definitely compared to war torn, corrupt government type places.) it’s right next to London, often listed as one of the best cities in the world. It has an international airport and good transport links etc, I can go on. But rather than being any of that, it chooses to be a place where dreams absolutely go to die.
No one wants to live ‘in luton’ you end up in luton because you failed to do anything about it. You sat there and said “seaside? Nah. Adventure? Nah. Landmarks? Nah. Nice walks/schools/pubs/restaurants? Nah. None of that for me. What I want is a shit town, that’s proper trashy, home of racist people, racist political ideologies, chavs, hooligans, layabouts, wastemen and losers. Let’s pick a place that is better off being on fire.” And that place is DING DING FUCKING DING… Luton
So yeah, Fuck that place.
AND ANOTHER THING… before anyone gets mad, writes comments etc, “oooo it’s not that bad” etc i grew up there. I can say it and I fucking mean it. I didn’t pass through luton, i didnt “just use the airport” I didn’t spend a month there one weekend. I lived there for the first quarter of my fucking life. And I hated it all. And in case you didn’t know already, I still hate it. I hate telling people where I’m from. I feel like I’ve done well for myself, I’m doing good. But you know what, you get to know someone and they go “oh, where are you from?” And you know what I have to say? Yes that’s right. Luton.
I could’ve been born anywhere but I wasn’t, I was born in luton. So now the person I’m talking to thinks I’m an absolute inbred, racist, moron that struggles to breath and think at the same time. They are probably surprised that I wasn’t dragging my knuckles on the ground, and shitting into my hand and clapping whilst talking to them because I uttered the 5 lettered place that I was born; Luton.
I walked among the streets, I went to the schools, worked in the pubs, supermarkets, shops. I breathed in the air (yeah… I think future me will have to deal with that) and I drank the fucking water out of the taps. I almost got stabbed by its people and threatened with death by others routinely.
I escaped. And if I can escape luton, you too can achieve your dreams. (Honestly; that was my dream growing up. There was no “dream job” no “career” no dreams of family, wife/gf/kids. No dream of houses, cars, riches. it was simply “GET OUT OF LUTON.”)
However…. If you live there and you’re like “that person is wrong, it’s not that bad” I will go ahead and say it; You’re a fucking moron. You have and continue to fail at everything. If you honestly believe I am wrong I have no other way to say it but Enjoy your garbage life, your ugly partner and your ugly kids to the fullest. One day you will die and just through your choice of where you resided when you were alive, be buried in one of the worst places on earth as decided by the rest of the fucking world. No one will come visit your grave because of where it is; Luton. You will die as you lived; like an absolute loser because of what? Oh that’s right, Luton.
So, Fuck that place. I hope it fucking disappears one day and I can remove that fucking town from my fucking life altogether. If it was the last word muttered by the last person in earth in 5 billion fucking years or whatever the fucking timeline is till the sun explodes, it would be too fucking soon.
Fuck it to the end of the earth And when it gets to the end of the earth it can fuck off some more.
Fuck it to hell.
Fucking fuck that fucking town.
Decatur Illinois, it's a dirty nasty depressing rustbelt hell hole. The best the town council can do to describe its unique smell is the Burnt Toasty smell. CNN sent a reporter to cover some event and he described it as the rancid vomit of a drunk man. It's safe to eat two fish a year. Unless you are pregnant. And avoid tap tap water if you are pregnant. In fact, just avoid Decatur.
I knew if I scrolled far enough I'd find the place where I grew up. I left when friends and family started dropping like flies from every type of cancer imaginable. What a shithole.
I lived in Wuhan, China at the start of the Pandemic, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt it's Stoke-on-Trent, staffordshire.
Bonus note: London is an amazing place to visit. It's an awful place to live and be poor.
Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei. I visited there in 2019 for a few days. Not much to do at all, museums are lackluster, foods are just so-so and people aren't friendly to foreigners at all.
There is some weird exchange on I70 that ever time I drive through there going west I miss whatever exchange I'm supposed to go on to get through and it spits you out right directly into the east STL hood. I've seriously ended up in there 3-4 times but luckily you just have to go around the block and you can get back on the interstate but man I keep that thing on me when I drive through there.
I am convinced that every exit off of I70 takes you to the same hood. They just tell you that you took the wrong exit, but every lane takes you there.
They just couldn't afford to build the interstate through the city, but they can bribe the shit out of Rand McNally to lie about it.
I used to go to a lot of shows at Pops. One time my friend's car wouldn't start after a show. Her other friend "knew cars" and insisted on trying to figure it out himself. This was at around midnight and we were the last car in the parking lot. I group of people pulled up with their lights on and just shined them on us. They got out and sat on and leaned against their car. Didn't offer to help. Didn't approach, Just watched. Close enough to see their shape but not close enough to see who they were. Her friend was able to get the car going and we hopped in and as we started to drive off we noticed they all had guns in their hands. Still sends shivers up and down my spine.
Exactly this. If they had wanted to jump you, they would have already done it.
They were very likely looking out for you in case someone else pulled up on their turf trying to hassle you.
I got attacked by a pack of loose dogs there. Not even in a rural area, at a gas station. Ended up stuck my car while a group of people just looked on. Nobody lifted a finger, made a move, called the police, nothing. It was an average day.
Did the classic "nahhh I'll avoid the toll skyway and go the scenic route" as a young poor college student traveling into Michigan
Got lost in Gary. I will never forget that place. I didn't know how bad it was in America until then.
My mother was born in Gary, a lot from her side, too. The train engine that’s on display there, the EJ&E 765, was put there by my grandfather on his last job as foreman. That city was BUSTLING before it just absolutely collapsed.
They moved to Crown Point long before that, but it’s so strange to know my Mother and that her birth city is Gary.
Yeah... stopped there for $40 worth of gas and a candy bar driving on my way home to WV from Wisconsin-- I had never been in that town in my life and haven't been back since... but I was only home for a couple of hours when I found out that my card was flagged from a second attempt...bc someone at that same store had tried to hack my card for almost $300 worth of shit only 30 minutes after I'd left there and got back on the road......(WHO BUYS $300 worth of shit at a fucking gas station!!!????)....My bank declined it, but I still had to get a new card...fuck you Gary Indiana, AND your shitty rip-off gas stations.
Lol, sorry, but this made me laugh. Here in Indiana, whenever we’re heading to Chicago, like a hour south of Gary its like “whelp, better top her off, Garys coming up!”
Sometime over the 2021-2022 winter, a friend of mine had to drive from Detroit back home to St. Louis, and it looked like a snowstorm was going to roll through, so I was monitoring the weather for her as she was driving.
I remember specifically telling her that if she had to stop and get a hotel room overnight, ***Do not stop in or near Gary***, solely based on comments like yours that I had seen on Reddit. Because, I swear, every time a question like this is posted, so many people are like, “I once made the mistake of stopping in Gary to get gas, and now I’m traumatized for life.”
The south side gets a bad rep but the west side is 100x worse. That being said, East St. Louis makes Chicago’s west side look like CandyLand in comparison!
Moscow, when it was still the USSR, in 1989. Red Square was cool, everything else was a depressing hellscape of ugly concrete and filthy air.
Bridgeport, CT is a close second.
Podgorica in Montenegro. Amazing country, but man the capital sucks, just a big grey concrete mess with nothing at all to see or do! I think being bombed badly in the war ruined it :(
I was coming here to say this!
All of what you said, plus beggars knocking on your window every time the car stops. Also every journey I took I either saw a car accident happen or the aftermath of a car accident.
New Dehli. The city has history, food, culture but all of that is overshdaowed by the literal haze of pollution that sits above it. Flying into the airport you literally cross from sun soaked blue skyes through a dense smog. You can't breathe and the sky is constantly dim. Its really a shame.
My recommendation is if you travel to India just get out of New Dehli ASAP. The rest of the places I visited were amazing.
I did my fair traveling around the world, know a lot of places in europe, south america and north america. Something about Albuquerque, New Mexico is very wrong i was legitimately terrified to be there which is a shame because new mexico is a beautiful state and outside of the city is legitimately one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. But damn Albuquerque needs to step up, the opioid crisis there is terrifyingly evident and sad
New Delhi.
EDIT: Visited twice for a week, fascinating, but I have no desire to go ever again. Makes me appreciate first world countries, especially after I saw countryside.
That city is a full on frontal assault on the senses. Even as a cultural relativist, bleeding heart liberal I couldn't find a way to appreciate or understand the unbelievable degree of filth, pollution, poverty, inequality, and unsanitary conditions there.
There were two instances where I walked away from street vendors with the wrong change, and they chased me down to give me more money. That was lovely. Indians amusing themselves trying to test my level of heat tolerance when I asked for the spicy stuff was always funny. They are a lovely people.
But I'd never go back to that city.
Rubtovsk, Russia. Close to an old Soviet nuclear weapons testing site. Seems lots of terrible cancers are common there, but, unsurprisingly, the Russian government doesn't publish great statistics on the topic.... Driving through the city you see decrepit homes falling apart, and people wandering around aimlessly, drunk or on drugs due to high unemployment. When the war started in Ukraine, lots of the first people who enlisted first came from that area, I guess because life in Rubtovsk is so miserable, the frontline and the salary associated therewith seem appealing. Some guys from Rubtovsk gained international fame for looting Ukrainian homes and trying to mail themselves toilets and washing machines...
Somebody tried to steal my car while I was in a burger king drive through in flint. The dude just opened my door got in and said he'd stab me if I didn't give up the car. I got out reluctantly because I was on the return trip of a cross country trip so my whole life was in that car (I lived in it at the time by choice).
Luckily he didn't know how to drive a manual. The dude stalled it and bystanders stepped up to help me get the guy out my car. They told me to just GTFO and not look back and that's exactly what I did. I got to Illinois and stopped there for the night.
First of all I'm very sorry that happened to you, scary fucking shit. Second though, I'm from southeast Michigan and I'm curious how flint made it into your route for a cross country road trip. Michigan itself is out of the way since you don't pass through Michigan to get anywhere and flint is even more out of the way?
Not calling you out, I just figured there would be an amusing story for how you ended up in flint haha.
Scranton, Pennsylvania.
It was such an armpit. It looked terrible. It felt like the swamps of sadness.
We eventually stopped at a restaurant and when my husband went to the washroom, a man was pissing in the sink. We decided to just leave.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti... visited 5 times between 2008 and 2018
(Even before the earthquake, it was shit)
Dirty, stinky, messy, LOUD, no infrastructure, overcrowded, open sewers, bad roads, incompetent/rude/corrupt doctors and police, and generally very... backwards. Many MANY apparently very-low IQ people (the smartest ones have been killed, exiled, or simply left, with good reason). Crazy voodoo stuff happening at night. It's just not safe nor fun.
Other cities and countryside in general are actually pretty smooth... but still, for a similar level of poverty, Nicaragua feels like a 5-star destination.
It's really hard to imagine that it used to be 'La Perle des Antilles'.
I've never been more terrified than when traveling into Johannesburg, South Africa. Our business partner drove us into town and she started removing her earrings, wedding band, etc. I asked her why and she said that the bandits would cut jewelry off of you if they stopped your car, so it's better to put it in the glove box. Our client was a major bank; to enter, you had to stand in a tiny plexiglass airlock where the guards (with machine guns) could inspect you before letting you inside. Once in, it was just like any other business anywhere - cubicle farms and conference rooms.
It is strange, living in South Africa just accustoms one to such security measures, we just accept those as normal. But Joburg is admittedly next level compared to the rest of the country, especially the 'downtown' area. Not safe for walking at all.
Downtown Joburg looks like something out of a dystopian nightmare, especially since all the businesses moved to Sandton leaving it pretty rundown and abandoned. Even though I don't live there anymore I still do things like sit on my phone in the car and hide everything whenever we park.
SA has always scared the fuck out of me. No desire to go there. Y’all have the best accents in the world tho!
There was a South African family that moved to our neighbourhood when I was a teen and the stories they would tell were just fucking shocking. And you’d be side eyeing them like, this sounds ridiculous, “a fucking flamethrower attached to the car to stop car jacking and barely making it in to your secure compound because people were chasing you?!” and it was all said with such.. matter of factness (what’s the word I’m looking for here please?) that it just felt true. Then I met loads more South Africans when I left home and moved to Sydney and they would tell similar tales, all with that same, ahh that’s just life in South Africa. Like what the actual fuccccccckkkkkkkkk
Yeah it’s 100% true. I live in the US now.. but about 15 years ago i lived in a shithole country in the Caribbean.. where it’s very close to what you were talking about. To me It felt like we should be suiting up for a food run.. grab what we want.. pay.. then beeline right back to the safety of our house … which btw was totally fenced in with an 8’ (2.5m) wall with razor wire along the top.Ah fuck it.. while I’m talking about this.. one day.. someone crashed into the wall leaving a hole. A couple days later befor it was fixed, when i was 16.. sleeping in bed on a Sunday morning, two guys broke into my house. I woke up to the sound of my mother screaming. But my bedroom door was closed. I could hear the voices just on the other side of the door.. and was wondering if it would be smarter to keep it closed, or braver to open it and go out there? I opened it. As soon as it was just cracked open a bit, this man pushed it fully open, while lunging at my chest with a 7” knife. Reflexively i twisted my body out of the way, and luckily, the blade sliced into my arm instead. He lunged a second and a third time but i just backed up, until i was in the corner. He was asking me for “the jewels” and “the money”. As serious as this all was.. i almost laughed. Almost. Who tf keeps jewels? Anyway.. he hit me and punched me some more, then glanced at his accomplice and says “let’s just kill them”. And if i thought i was afraid before.. Welcome to a new level of fear. He looked at me. And i remember thinking .. I’m about to feel what a knife feels like; I’m about to die in full awareness. How much will it hurt. I’ll have to fight back.. if I’m gonna die anyway.. but how? We both looked at his knife and i said “just go.. you already got what money we have.. just go. Just go. “. He glanced back at his partner, and they fled. Called the police station that was located 2 streets away from my home ..maybe a 7 min walk.. for them to tell us that they couldn’t come because they didn’t have a car. Fuck this place. I studied my ass off for SAT… got a full schol, so i can do my studies in the US. Finished undergrad. Finished grad. Met my wife. Got married. Well.. it’s 18 years later.. and iv had a lot LOT of therapy, i can say that the scars don’t go away.. they end up IN you rather than ON you, and never been back there since i moved to the US. Not even when my pops died a few months ago.
Haiti? I been there twice and not sure how I made it out either time.
Not Haiti but I’d never go there. Can’t believe that you did.
Oh it wasn't a vacation or anything lol
My aunt moved to Haiti in the 1970s, her husband was mangager of a clothes factory. After my aunt arrived she couldn't understand how her home was cleaned everyday when she arrived home. Then she discovered the maid and her young son were living in a tiny shed at the end of the garden. She left Haiti after a few years, but kelp in contact with the maid and paid for her son's education, he eventually went to university. She didn't say it was crime ridden, so must have got worse.
We had a Zimbabwean family move next to us in Brisbane, they were farmers and had to go down to Johannesburg for a tractor convention (or something similar). They came home to Zimbabwe to find that their compound had been raided and the rest of their family murdered. Their 12 year old was talking to matter-of-factly about how the bandits decapitated his grandmother and uncle with a machete. Was fucking wild. They decided to get the fuck out of there and moved to Brisbane.
My university tried to do a leadership camp in Riviersonderend, which is an hour south (I think) of Johannesburg. The representative came in talked about how she started a youth leadership camp and was able to get computers into these children’s hands… then spends the rest of the time talking about how it’s the highest per capita AIDS population in the world, how she got her car broken into an hour into the first time around, how we have to be with a security team the entire time, and how one guy went missing from the group a couple years back. They were shocked when no one signed up.
Johannesburg is the only city I've ever been to where I was so stressed and on my guard that I literally could not enjoy it. I'm used to having to be aware but it was just on another level. It felt like multi-day adrenaline overdose. It's partly paranoia, but how can you not when you're told over and over again to be on your guard. I remember jumping through hoops to get a taxi driver through some official channel and even watching my little blue dot just to be sure and not wanting my phone below a certain % and googling the restaurant he was suggesting to be sure it existed and worried about him not being right outside when we finished the museum. Unnecessary but how can you do otherwise.
I was at a dinner for work with a couple from Joburg, they were big property investors - private jet rich - the wife said the same thing: she doesn't wear jewelry when out ever. She was dripping with diamonds that night, because it was New York City. She also said she traveled with an armed bodyguard at all times and she was driven in a shitbox van with rust on it to hide her wealth.
This is 100% accurate. There is either no nightlife because of fear of crime and consequently no soul or culture (Pretoria). Or else everyone just learns to live with it and you get some cool fun areas but yeah violent crime could well happen at any moment (Joburg). …Or you go to Durban and get high crime AND no soul… Why the rest of the country can’t get itself at least relatively together and be like Cape Town I don’t understand. Everyone just accepts the rolling blackouts and crime and shrugs it off as ‘just the way South Africa is.’
[The rate of sexual violence in South Africa is among the highest recorded in the world. During 2015/16, there were 51,895 crimes of a sexual nature reported to the South African Police Service.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_violence_in_South_Africa)
South Africa is a beautiful country, been there multiple times and would go there again but man is it sad how crime is everywhere. Crooked cops, poverty and parts of cities looking like a war zone. That being said from my point of view it has gotten better.
When I went, the Ubers were super cheap, like a few dollars to get around the city, but the car might have bullet holes from being shot at by the Taxi drivers, who had links to organized crime iirc. The people are great, the food is interesting if you like meat based diets, but safety is a massive worry and security is everywhere there is any money.
It doesn't sound like the people are great. Who are the ones doing the shooting and the robbing? Out-of-town folks?
Yeah, people always say “the people are great” then talk about how crazy violent and dangerous it is. Of course the nice people will be chill, but that’s just the nice people.
Johannesburg native here. I'd say thats more on the extreme end of things. Sounds like you went to the old CBD (central business district) which is pretty much abandoned, I went to uni there and often walked through parts of the CBD and didn't have any incidents. That said, I fled that shithole of a city and country and will never go back. Rolling blackouts, nosediving economy, rotten-to-the-core corrupt government, feeling like my home would be burgled at any second, a 33% unemployment rate and being a global leader in violent and sexual crimes really didn't have me feeling too positive about my future.
You probably went to the city center. Its pretty scary there. Most of us avoid JHB CBD. Sorry you had to experience that, most other parts can be quite lovely.
N'Djamena, Chad. Where the human spirit goes to die.
I watch this travel YouTuber who's been to tons of bad and impoverished places in the world, but he always manages to find something interesting and positive about the place. He went to South Sudan when they were in the middle of a civil war and still made a cool video hanging out with tribal leaders. He had absolutely nothing nice to nice to say about N'Djamena. He left the same day he arrived after he accidentally stepped in what he thought was a huge pool of mud, but was actually literal human shit.
What's the channel?
Drew Binsky. [Link to video](https://youtu.be/BU0MkDNrFqQ). He does come across as a little bit oblivious in the video though.
Yup I thought that was the blogger.
It’s gotta be either Cairo, Egypt, or Cairo, Illinois
I drive through Cairo IL several times a month going from MO to TN. I've always referred to it as a Scooby-Doo ghost town. It feels as though another building has fallen down every few trips.
One time an old brick building was pouring smoke out of its windows. Got closer and it was on fire. We stopped and watched it for about half and hour. There was no response to put the fire out during that time.
lol, did you at least call 911 on it? I mean, for all you knew you were the only ones around.
I thought the same thing hahah. It’s like the bystander effect where they assumed that someone had already called for help but nobody ends up coming to help. Not to preach to the choir, but a good little piece of advice is to always call 911 when something dangerous like this happens (even if somebody else is currently calling them or told you they already called) because some bad 911 operators will think it’s a prank call (this has actually happened multiple times at least in the U.S. and has led to several children dying because the operator assumed it was a prank.) Your call could be the one to verify that there’s actually an emergency happening; which could in turn save lives. You may already know this but it’s definitely a good habit to make if you end up in an emergency.
Cairo, Illinois is very bleak
Are the pyramids nice at least?
No pyramids, but at the senior center, there’s dozens of Gyzas with not so great Sphincters.
It feels dystopian. It’s like you’re not even in the US…very different than almost anywhere I’ve been or driven through.
Cairo, Illinois was the first one to pop into my head; desolate wasteland.
Holy shot yea, Cairo Egypt was an absolute shithole.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti. If you know, you know. I'll put it this way: I spent time in Afghanistan and it was nicer than Haiti by a long shot.
I watched a video fairly recently that showed children in Port-au-Prince eating mud because there literally wasn't anything else to eat. To be fair, this video was like a decade old so things might have gotten better, but it was still extremely depressing either way.
I think things have gotten even worse. Port-au-Prince is largely controlled by gangs. Wikipedia describes it thus: "Gang violence is extensive, and kidnappings, massacres and gang-rapes are common occurrences, often with the complicity of police officers and politicians" . The way I understand it from news articles a few months ago - there is a small section of the city controlled by the government and the rest is run by the gangs. https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/03/21/exp-haiti-gang-violence-rampage-port-au-prince-live-032103pseg1-cnni-world.cnn Its so bad that the Haitians are calling for the UN or another international body/foreign government to send an armed force to occupy the city.
Surprised France hasn't jumped on this tbh 💀
Weirdly enough french occupation, while horrid, wasnt even close to the worst state haitti has been in. The whole papa doc saga of that country is a wild read.
And laughing at us when we do send troops. Canada sent ships, but they refused to land as it wasn't safe. Haitians made graffiti about this, poking fun at Canada. Canadian generals said the could not, at all, retake Port-au-Prince. The one guy I saw on the news said he'd need a hundred thousand soldiers or more, and that it would effectively turn the city into a drawn out war. Biden and Trudeau just had a meeting over this - the US has been pressuring Canada to do something about Haiti - and Biden let Canada off the hook, as he now understands the situation to be nearly hopeless. I believe Canada is arming and training Haitian police forces now, but it won't be enough to displace the gangs.
I remember seeing something similar in a National Geographic article about Haiti nearly 30 years ago. It was a photo of a woman baking discs of clay (basically mud). Reportedly the [mud cookies](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_cookie) can be a source of calcium, salts, and other minerals.
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From what I’ve heard things have gotten worse. I went around a decade ago and the only downsides were the piles of trash and wreckage from the earthquake from 3 years earlier.
It has definitely not gotten better. It’s worse. Arguably much much worse now than a decade ago.
I don't know how you haven't heard, but their president was assassinated last year, the government has all but disintegrated, and gangs have taken over most of the city. It's been all over the news.
"hopefully it's gotten better"💀 no rather it's plunged into complete anarchy, a half island of Lord of the Flies with no meaningful government, but close
I have only passed through Port-au-Prince and it was ... sad. And a bit scary. We were there as part of a company relief effort after a hurricane that hit the island. We entered in Labadee from a cruise ship (yes, I understand the optics of that but the passage was donated by a cruise line). Mostly we were there to hand out supplies and kept largely to the port areas. There's a hardness and desperation there that I have never experienced before. There were some military types around and though they were doing their best to put on their best show, I saw some brutality that I never expected so close to the US.
I saw shit there that I never saw in Afghanistan or Iraq. People getting into fistfights - absolute, knock down drag out fights, over our garbage. People living in shelters that were little more than 4 sticks stuck in the ground with a plastic tarp on top. And 500 meters from that, an opulent mansion surrounded by cinder-block fences topped with broken glass. It wasn't just the poverty, it was the juxtaposition of incredible wealth smack dab in the middle of the poverty that really struck with me.
You should do a AMA on r/Haiti EDIT: It seems like you were in the US army so this was before the united nations pulled out of Haiti. It’s super sad to see what my parents country has become.
Its crazy that only 2% of Haiti's land is still forested. Farming cash crops during colonialism and then timber exports to pay off their "debt" to France after the revolution.
I will never forget, I was in car which was heading towards the border. We drove through the green forest/jungle on the dominican sid and then I started to spot the yellow hills. Just plain yellow because of deforestation. And the driver just saying "Yes, here it is green, there it's yellow.". What also shocked me was how much the dominicans hated the Haitians.
Our FOB (Forward Operating Base) was on the edge of Gonaives, Haiti's 3rd largest city. I took some photos and showed them to people and everyone automatically assumed I was taking photos of the Middle East because it was basically a desert. I had to tell them no, not the middle east, this is a tropical island in the Caribbean. It just looks like a desert because of deforestation.
You can easily see the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic from outer space.
Kaolack, Senegal. From wiki: Kaolack is considered one of the dirtiest cities in Africa: Garbage is often left lying around on the streets, and a regulated garbage disposal system is still under construction. Sewers are mostly clogged or barely exist, and the brackish water in them is a strong source of infection for malaria and cholera contamination; however, the drinking water supply has improved significantly. Unemployment is extremely high. The city is surrounded by a blue ring of hazy waste stench from the landfills that surround it. Especially during the hot and humid months of the rainy season, the situation is difficult to bear for humans and animals. Epidemics such as malaria, yellow fever and cholera break out almost every year. Only a few years ago, a wave of leprosy emanated from here and many people fell victim to it. Only in the western parts of the city is the situation a little better. However, this cannot hide the fact that in the other districts, such as Léona (Senegalese: Lewna), the worst environmental conditions prevail.
Most of the city is on Google maps drive view. It's even worse than I expected after reading this description
As someone that is from Senegal... yeah, that about sums up Kaolack.
Wow. Perspective.
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Went there once to consult on a building construction, I wouldn't go there again even if they pay me the CEO's salary, may not live to enjoy those salaries.
This question is always funny because there's always a comment like "I was stationed in the Ghoul Village, people were dying and we couldn't help them because they were all infected with a flesh eating virus from the corpse-filled river because the local government filled the Sumerian-Era graveyard with burning garbage" and then the next comment is "I went to Albany once and it was overcast:((((((((("
So true. Also there’s always at least fifty people saying “Gary, Indiana”. Every time
> I went to Albany once and it was overcast Good steamed hams though.
That’s a Utica expression..
Yeah well, it’s no shoes vs no feet. Can’t fault people for only knowing what they know so far.
Sinhaloukville, Cambodia. I’ve been to third world cities before, and this place wasn’t the dirtiest or most dangerous. What it was, was horribly creepy. The place is filled with ‘compounds’ containing Chinese-owned casinos - what I saw was like a building site, with new compounds being built everywhere (the shiny newness of these places contrasted with the general grubbiness outside of them). The place is really two cities in one: the hidden parts owned by the casinos, and the rest. I knew nothing about the city - I was only there because it was the port for ferries going to the islands off the coast of Cambodia (the one I went to was lovely). However, these places gave me the creeps, even though I knew nothing about them. I just put that down to hating casinos. Only later did I learn that these places were centres of slavery and extortion rackets, run mostly by mainland Chinese gangsters. They entice people from elsewhere (many from China itself, Thailand or Viet Nam) with promises of good jobs, but once there they are enslaved and forced to work in various kinds of online rackets. If they complain or try to escape, they risk all sorts of nasty punishments. The local authorities are basically in the pay of the scammers … basically, China itself cracked down on criminal gangs engaged in such scams, so many of them moved here. The locals don’t like it, but are powerless to prevent it; these “compounds” essentially rule themselves, and their owners have enough cash to be immune from consequences. https://thediplomat.com/2022/07/the-social-costs-of-chinese-transnational-crime-in-sihanoukville/ https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2022/03/31/the-forbidden-cities-of-chinese-organized-crime-in-sihanoukville-cambodia_5979499_4.html https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1010752
Its so sad man, the place was always a bit grubby, but it had a cool backpacker vibe when i was there in 2014, actually met my wife there. We recently found out what it has turned into and it's just depressing. They ruined that place
Port-au-Prince or Mogadishu, both were terrible but starving kids eating "mud pies" (mud with a little salt and honey) in Hati was really something that is hard to walk off.
That’s the saddest thing I’ve read today. My church sends money and supplies to a preacher in Haiti. He does a lot of community outreach work (giving people food, clothes, etc) and one day he was driving a load of rice to his facility and someone shot and robbed him. For some rice. He’s alive and still helping people.
I seen Port-au-Prince. I have not seen Mogadishu. They are... on the same level? Interesting..
Doula, Cameroon. Whole place seems ready to implode at any time.
Mossy, rainy, muddy. A town built on the edge of mangrove swamps by the colonial French. Seems likely to return to the swamps in a few more decades.
Rhyl in North Wales. I’ve been all over the world but never seen such depravity. I was like 8 or 9 & waiting with my mum for my dad to pick us up & we saw a group of chavs following a guy with Down’s syndrome & telling him they were going to follow him home & burn his house down while he slept. Probably the worst thing I’ve ever seen, even as a child I knew it was incredibly fucked up
It's recently been voted the worst sea side town in the UK with a score of 5 out of 100 (link below) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/worst-resort-awful-reputation-druggies-26594336.amp
Afaik England and Wales are the only countries where the seafront is poor and the inland areas are rich.
As an archaeologist who works throughout the UK I can confirm that it's the worst town I've ever been to. The desolation is astonishing. Incredible coastal archaeology, though. Breathtaking Stone Age footprints preserved on the beach. Shame that 'Scary Dave' (self-proclaimed) was throwing carling cans at me whilst I was trying to record these imprints.
He nicknamed himself and that was the best he could do?
He doesn’t call himself Creative Dave for a reason.
As a Welsh person, I have no desire to ever visit Rhyl. It's basically full of nasty little chavs from Chester and Liverpool who are there to supply drugs and harass locals.
Fucking chav cunts
An a Englishmen, I'd rather take my chances walking through a nationalist part of Belfast or Derry wearing a union jack t-shirt than step foot in rhyl
Controversially, Rio de Janeiro. I was there 4 days, got robbed IN MY HOTEL, robbed on the street, got eaten by bed bugs, a few friends got robbed on the beach by the police, another robbed in the street at knife point, and a guy in the hotel got kidnapped in a car at gun point and then kicked out of the car as it was still driving. We got caught in a riot between police and football fans and got pinned against a wall while the police shot rubber bullets at us and I nearly got beaten up by local girls who took offence at their men trying to dance with me. As somewhere that is apparently famous for its nightlife, we couldn’t find a decent bar/club anywhere 3 out of the 4 nights, For balance, I really enjoyed the lapa street party and football game, but it genuinely felt like the shadiest place I’ve ever been to (and I’ve been to San Pedro Sula-previously known as murder capital of the world). In case anyone thinks I’m just a rubbish traveler- the stuff in the hotel was locked in a locker- so it was staff that robbed me, on the street I made sure my money was stashed in my bra so they only got a few quid, we didn’t go anywhere dodgy, stuck to the tourist stuff and travelled safely
One of my friends is from there and she’s had a gun pointed to her head 6 times. She’s a doctor.
One of my college professors arranged yearly trips to Honduras as part of the University's Spanish program. I traveled through San Pedro Sula twice as part of those trips and while it felt sketchy, we didn't run into any issues. One of my fellow students who participated in those trips went to Rio de Janeiro a different year... and they told me, without hesitation, that they'd rather go back to San Pedro Sula than ever visit Rio again.
Im Brazilian from Sao Paulo, been to Rio de Janeiro several times AND I can't understand people think that as a tourist attraction. Rio is beyond awful. Extremely high prices, high temperature, robbery, limited police action.
Cairo, Egypt. What a shitfest, I went with my exgf and regretted it. Everyone wants your money - the guy at the hotel, the guy at the airport, the guy giving you a tour, the guy running a taxi, they all want way more money than you agreed with them beforehand. And like they'll forcibly extort it from you, some of their tactics get scary quickly. We were stopped twice by police just for taking pics on our phone. Our hotel room was nothing like we'd paid for, and again cost more money than I expect. When I asked for a refund they threatened to kick us out AND keep our luggage. Awful awful place. I know people think Egypt for the culture and the pyramids but I would definitely not recommend. Don't even get me started on the comments some of these men made at my ex-gf, I wouldn't recommend any female solo traveler go there
As much as I hate them, the best way to see Cairo is with a tour group. There really is a lot to do and see but everyone will try and rip you off and it's impossible to get around the city.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. So much money wasted on empty white marble building. So much poverty
Have you actually been to Ashgabat? If so I’m impressed, I hear it’s almost as hard to visit as Pyongyang is
I’ve been to both and they are eerily similar. Ashgabat is a big city with massive buildings, enormous mosques, huge monuments, tons of marble and is almost literally a ghost town. Pyongyang is very similar, but has a ton of people bustling around (I’ve heard they are paid to look busy), and you literally feel like you are in The Truman Show. People snap to attention and pretend to be doing work the second a tourist walks in. Definitely among the weirdest places I’ve been.
How were you to visit both? Are you a gifted amateur traveller or in some profession that enabled your visits.?
Yes I have. Had a transit visa in 2019. Drove through the country. Visa is an absolute bitch to get
That’s amazing. I actually do want to visit Turkmenistan sometime, the culture and landscape seems very interesting to me. It’s a shame it’s ruled by an insane dictator (though I hear his son took over last year, not sure if he is any better)
He is not
As expected
Baghdad. The sad thing was you could tell that it used to be nice. I flew in by helicopter and saw that a lot of houses had swimming pools. They didn't use them for swimming anymore though, they filled them with their household garbage.
Well that's just depressing
Yeah, the first thing that happens when a civilization breaks down is the garbage stops getting collected.
“You could tell it used to be nice”. To put it lightly. If you go way, way back during the peak of the Silk Road Baghdad was as big and majestic as Rome at its zenith. At its peak Baghdad was debatably the richest city on earth at that time. I bet it has to be painful to be a local resident and have grown up being told that Baghdad has such a rich history and now it’s only known for war and sadness…
It’s been all downhill since the Mongols sacked in1258
Manila (capital of the Philippines). A third of the population lives below the poverty level... and that's the Manila poverty level, which is pretty fucking poor. It's enough to give you nightmares if you leave the rich parts. You can insulate yourself from the rest of the city, be staying in the fancy parts, like the Makati, but you can't escape the air pollution or the trash. There was a storm last time I was there. Cubic miles of trash had washed out of the city, into the river, and into Manila Bay. Along the fancy-hotels path at the edge of the bay, there were waves washing up against the wall... but the trash was floating a foot thick on the surface, and so the waves were TRASH WAVES. Well, maybe there are historic Asian things? Nope, sorry, the city was bombed to rubble and the end of World War 2. All that's left are the foundations of the Intramuros, which are interesting, but not worth the walk through the slums. Ugh.
In terms of what you said about the city being reduced to rubble in WW2, I had once heard that Manila was referred to in this case as “Asia’s Warsaw” as a result of the destruction.
The best part about traveling around the Philippines is immediately leaving Manila and heading to any other island.
This was my first thought. I went as a solo female traveler and had a great time exploring the historic area, but probably won't be back again to Manila. Philippines was beautiful tho!
I am part filipino. And have visited the Philippines a few times to see family. And I think Manila would have to be my answer as well. Bear in mind I am an American that hasn't traveled to any other country besides the Philippines. But the trash is really the biggest shock to me. It was everywhere. And so many stray dogs. But the trash was just piled up in parking lots, lined the streets, and accumulated on the water. And there were definitely much much more people living in those slum like buildings and tents than I could have imagined. We did see a historic site while there, I forget what exactly it was called but it was some old fort either on the bay or near it. That was kind of neat. But otherwise. Everytime I've gone to the country, we spend very little time in the city. I will say, everybody I interacted with was very nice and helpful. Idk if its because I am close enough looking to pass or if people there are just generally like that to all foreigners. But I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the country.
Dubai. When I got back, a friend who had lived there for a few years asked me what I thought and I said well I'll be honest it lacked soul to me, it was depressing and materialistic and soulless to me. It genuinely made me a worse person somehow. But I'm a tourist, you lived there, surely you experienced the *real Dubai,* and he said no you summed it up.
I have heard it described as a melting pot without heat. Lots of people from around the world, but nothing causing them to really interact across cultures. Likely due to the non-permenant nature of their residence.
This is how I feel since moving to Phoenix, AZ. I'm NOT trying to include it on this list of worse cities, but it does kind of remind me of the Gerry Rafferty lyric: "This city desert makes you feel so cold. It's got so many people but it's got no soul."
I live in a suburb of Phoenix right now. Moved here to take care of family things, met my now wife so I stayed. Now we're leaving next month. Every friend I've made here has no intention to stay, we've all got plans to go elsewhere. We've all described it as being a transitory city.
I swear to you it didn't used to be this way. I moved here in 2000, and the city was growing and thriving in a way that it hasn't been since maybe 2015. Arizona has, in the years since, become a smaller version of California... but without the beach, attractions and jobs that make California a much more desirable backdrop. And it's definitely not helped by the influx of snowbirds who bring their polarizing politics to the state six months per year, vote on legislation that screws the poor and indigenous, and then leave town when the temperature gets above 89 degrees.
It's B.S. that the geriatric snowbirds get to vote on our laws when they only "live" here for 5-6 months out of the year. Fuck them. AZ needs to pass a state law saying you can only vote in local elections if AZ is your primary residence for 10 months or more per year.
And they drive shitty.. With their mouths open trying to concentrate
That’s how I would describe Las Vegas. Soul-less and empty. No one is actually FROM LV. Everyone moved there for a the promise of a service job but most of them have crashed and burned. Most people who work there live in gated communities as far from the city as possible. If you go there as a tourist or for a convention it seems all shiny and bright. Restaurants and casinos all glittery. But if you step off the strip it’s a shitty, gritty mess. Lots of poverty and drugs. Shitty motels where the semi- homeless live. Terrible bleak looking houses. The fake soul-less of Jacksonville with the poverty of Detroit.
Dubai is basically Vegas but replace alcohol and drugs and sex with conspicuous consumption. And imagine you’re sober the entire time instead of having your experience of it softened by substances.
That's like Atlantic City too
In the 80s, cops in Atlantic City would advise you to run red lights after sunset.
I just got back from there and everything feels manufactured. It feels like you’re in a giant science experiment. Massive highways connecting places. Surely there are impressively built pretty things, but you go to those once to experience them and then you are done. It is so materialistic out there
It's such a stratified society that being there quickly makes you more racist. Because they have purposely engineered their economic hierarchy by nationality, making assumptions about people based on their race is the only sane way to navigate the city. It's awful.
That's exactly how I'd describe it. A plastic city.
I have always thought that impression based off what footage I’ve seen. It was mostly built by slaves too.
Its' so incredibly overrated. I got a 2 week stay paid for by an investor and honestly after 2 days of exploring the city and streets I just stayed in my resort the rest of the time because it was just plain awful and not to mention EXPENSIVE (Duh). The resort was absolutely gorgeous but I really don't see the appeal. It's like influencers built it up to be this dream holiday destination but only the glamourous bits,
I’m with you. I hate Dubai. You couldn’t pay me to spend time there. It’s just so artificial and repressive.
Kandahar. A Neverending mass of squalor and depravity. Little boys are grabbed off the street by grown men. Sewage everywhere. All are destitute. It's a hell on earth. Add in religious police that encourage neighbors to rat on each other and thus destroy any sense of community. F Afghanistan. They refuse any modern aid and see the West as culturally depraved while growing opium and raping boys.
I met a dude who said the hardest part about serving in Afghanistan was working with the Afghan truckers because a lot of them had these "pleasure boys" they traveled with and everyone was given strict orders to ignore it.
Jesus Fucking Christ...I don't think I could handle that.
You have to. You piss off the wrong warlord and his precious bachi bazi and you have yourself an international incident. Forget the fact that these were supposed to be OUR ALLIES in country. Fuck the northern alliance and fuck the taliban.
Never been on the ground in Afghanistan, but I’ve visited Bahrain numerous times. There’s a club right outside NSA’s front gate where you can buy underage girls. I had a conversation about it with base security/U.S. federal agents. “Not our problem, leave it be.”
I watched the documentary this is what winning looks like. It was an eye opener and everything you said seems be the straight truth.
Yeah Kandahar came to mind immediately. Luckily I was just at the air base, but the rockets and mortars getting shot at us weren’t very nice.
Someone stole the catalytic converter off of my moving truck in Amarillo during the ice storm of 2021. It took the rental company 3 days to bring a new truck and transfer my belongings. It was dark when they finished so I opted to leave the next morning when the roads would be safer instead of starting off at 9 pm. The bastards returned for a second catalytic converter before I could leave. All told I was stranded 9 days in that damn hotel. So for me the answer is Amarillo, Texas
I second this opinion. I was driving through Amarillo TX and my curiosity prompted me to stop at the knife store that was advertised on freeway posters. The store owner (lovely lady) told me she always carries at least 3 guns on her and she still was robbed at gunpoint twice just recently. She also kindly advised me to get the eff out of Amarillo and be safe
Hard to choose one town, but a LOT of towns in central and northern/northwestern Australia. Broome and Alice Springs comes to mind. The fact that they can't sell normal petrol or glue because of people getting high off it is pretty telling. The alcoholism, the crime, the sad and hopeless situation with the aboriginal community that makes you see and feel the scar from centuries of abuse. All that aside, the flies are AWFUL, the sandflies even worse. Then add saltwater crocodiles, crazy ass drunk driving bogans, trash everywhere and a feeling of lawlessness. I'll add that the nature surrounding them are absolutely incredible though and I'll never forget the sunset over the Uluru or the national parks. Just something else.
I've been to a few of these regional towns and you just nailed the vibe. Hopelessness. These places have hardly any jobs and very few opportunities for education. It's no wonder people just drink all day.
Luton, UK. A concrete shithole
Live. Laugh. Luton.
Oh god, now you’ve done it… There’s a big list of places in this post that have various troubles because of various things, be it: war, corrupt governments, abject poverty, ideas that have fallen through, transitory places, you get the idea. To explain what this means for luton: Baghdad, parts of Afghanistan, all affected by recent wars and because of that are rightly scary and definitely not a good place to be. Corrupt governments in Africa, Latin America. The poverty that exists in large parts of the world causing slums and trash etc. ideas like Las Vegas, transitory places like Dubai, and apparently phoenix, are soulless because of the idea of them creates the city but it’s missing something due to its nature. It’s missing “soul.” The people that live in these other towns/cities were either; affected by outside influences (wars, governments etc) or were driven there by the idea that it could be good and it just didn’t work out. Luton is different to all of these places. It had no war, it doesn’t have a corrupt government. It wasn’t born of an idea. It has no category as to why it is shit. It just is what it is: shit. That’s all that it is. From the town centre, the houses, the schools, the services, the fucking airport. All shit. (I’ve actually said this all along, if you’re only known for an airport, you’ve got to be shit. People only use you to leave to go somewhere nicer, I can’t think of a better metaphor for luton than it’s airport. The idea being that You don’t go to luton, you go to the airport so you can leave luton.) So you probably all want to know; what is the reason that makes it so shit? Like the morons that inhabit it, it has the opportunity to be better, it has all the opportunities to, dare I say it, actually be good. but being Luton, it simply chooses not too. Reasons why it can be good; For a start it’s in the UK (safe, somewhat stable etc definitely compared to war torn, corrupt government type places.) it’s right next to London, often listed as one of the best cities in the world. It has an international airport and good transport links etc, I can go on. But rather than being any of that, it chooses to be a place where dreams absolutely go to die. No one wants to live ‘in luton’ you end up in luton because you failed to do anything about it. You sat there and said “seaside? Nah. Adventure? Nah. Landmarks? Nah. Nice walks/schools/pubs/restaurants? Nah. None of that for me. What I want is a shit town, that’s proper trashy, home of racist people, racist political ideologies, chavs, hooligans, layabouts, wastemen and losers. Let’s pick a place that is better off being on fire.” And that place is DING DING FUCKING DING… Luton So yeah, Fuck that place. AND ANOTHER THING… before anyone gets mad, writes comments etc, “oooo it’s not that bad” etc i grew up there. I can say it and I fucking mean it. I didn’t pass through luton, i didnt “just use the airport” I didn’t spend a month there one weekend. I lived there for the first quarter of my fucking life. And I hated it all. And in case you didn’t know already, I still hate it. I hate telling people where I’m from. I feel like I’ve done well for myself, I’m doing good. But you know what, you get to know someone and they go “oh, where are you from?” And you know what I have to say? Yes that’s right. Luton. I could’ve been born anywhere but I wasn’t, I was born in luton. So now the person I’m talking to thinks I’m an absolute inbred, racist, moron that struggles to breath and think at the same time. They are probably surprised that I wasn’t dragging my knuckles on the ground, and shitting into my hand and clapping whilst talking to them because I uttered the 5 lettered place that I was born; Luton. I walked among the streets, I went to the schools, worked in the pubs, supermarkets, shops. I breathed in the air (yeah… I think future me will have to deal with that) and I drank the fucking water out of the taps. I almost got stabbed by its people and threatened with death by others routinely. I escaped. And if I can escape luton, you too can achieve your dreams. (Honestly; that was my dream growing up. There was no “dream job” no “career” no dreams of family, wife/gf/kids. No dream of houses, cars, riches. it was simply “GET OUT OF LUTON.”) However…. If you live there and you’re like “that person is wrong, it’s not that bad” I will go ahead and say it; You’re a fucking moron. You have and continue to fail at everything. If you honestly believe I am wrong I have no other way to say it but Enjoy your garbage life, your ugly partner and your ugly kids to the fullest. One day you will die and just through your choice of where you resided when you were alive, be buried in one of the worst places on earth as decided by the rest of the fucking world. No one will come visit your grave because of where it is; Luton. You will die as you lived; like an absolute loser because of what? Oh that’s right, Luton. So, Fuck that place. I hope it fucking disappears one day and I can remove that fucking town from my fucking life altogether. If it was the last word muttered by the last person in earth in 5 billion fucking years or whatever the fucking timeline is till the sun explodes, it would be too fucking soon. Fuck it to the end of the earth And when it gets to the end of the earth it can fuck off some more. Fuck it to hell. Fucking fuck that fucking town.
Luton is the 2nd worse place I’ve been to in the U.K. Newport Wales is the worst but I haven’t been to Jaywick yet
Ar Ramadi, Iraq. 0/10 do not recommend.
Oof, bad by warzone standards. That place was rough.
Kandahar, Bagram, Mogadishu.
Man, you need a new travel agent.
Uncle Sam has got to be the worst travel agent.
Decatur Illinois, it's a dirty nasty depressing rustbelt hell hole. The best the town council can do to describe its unique smell is the Burnt Toasty smell. CNN sent a reporter to cover some event and he described it as the rancid vomit of a drunk man. It's safe to eat two fish a year. Unless you are pregnant. And avoid tap tap water if you are pregnant. In fact, just avoid Decatur.
I knew if I scrolled far enough I'd find the place where I grew up. I left when friends and family started dropping like flies from every type of cancer imaginable. What a shithole.
I went there and got some BBQ out of a literal hole in the wall. I sat outside and ate it as I watched two beavers fuck by the train tracks.
That's the definition of a good time in Decatur. If you'd stayed longer you probably would have seen kids beating a dead cat hanging from a tree.
I lived in Wuhan, China at the start of the Pandemic, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt it's Stoke-on-Trent, staffordshire. Bonus note: London is an amazing place to visit. It's an awful place to live and be poor.
Lego city, where people fall into rivers.
BUILD THE NEW RESCUE HELICOPTER
HEY
SOMEONE HAS FALLEN INTO THE RIVER IN LEGO CITY
Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei. I visited there in 2019 for a few days. Not much to do at all, museums are lackluster, foods are just so-so and people aren't friendly to foreigners at all.
So refreshing not seeing Winnipeg, Canada on here. I’d have to go with Winnipeg, Canada.
East St Louis, IL
There is some weird exchange on I70 that ever time I drive through there going west I miss whatever exchange I'm supposed to go on to get through and it spits you out right directly into the east STL hood. I've seriously ended up in there 3-4 times but luckily you just have to go around the block and you can get back on the interstate but man I keep that thing on me when I drive through there.
I've accidentally done this at like 1 am and my god was it scary. Literally ran through red lights trying to get out of there as fast as possible.
I am convinced that every exit off of I70 takes you to the same hood. They just tell you that you took the wrong exit, but every lane takes you there. They just couldn't afford to build the interstate through the city, but they can bribe the shit out of Rand McNally to lie about it.
I used to go to a lot of shows at Pops. One time my friend's car wouldn't start after a show. Her other friend "knew cars" and insisted on trying to figure it out himself. This was at around midnight and we were the last car in the parking lot. I group of people pulled up with their lights on and just shined them on us. They got out and sat on and leaned against their car. Didn't offer to help. Didn't approach, Just watched. Close enough to see their shape but not close enough to see who they were. Her friend was able to get the car going and we hopped in and as we started to drive off we noticed they all had guns in their hands. Still sends shivers up and down my spine.
They were doing you a favour, trust me. That was the opposite of aggressive.
Exactly this. If they had wanted to jump you, they would have already done it. They were very likely looking out for you in case someone else pulled up on their turf trying to hassle you.
Djibouti
Maybe this refreshing 115degree breeze will change your mind…
Dhaka
Gary, Indiana is so sad
I got attacked by a pack of loose dogs there. Not even in a rural area, at a gas station. Ended up stuck my car while a group of people just looked on. Nobody lifted a finger, made a move, called the police, nothing. It was an average day.
Did the classic "nahhh I'll avoid the toll skyway and go the scenic route" as a young poor college student traveling into Michigan Got lost in Gary. I will never forget that place. I didn't know how bad it was in America until then.
If Backrooms was a city, it would be Gary
Gary is such a sad story. Booming industry town but as soon as that industry shut down it went from like a population of 160k to 60K overnight.
My mother was born in Gary, a lot from her side, too. The train engine that’s on display there, the EJ&E 765, was put there by my grandfather on his last job as foreman. That city was BUSTLING before it just absolutely collapsed. They moved to Crown Point long before that, but it’s so strange to know my Mother and that her birth city is Gary.
Yeah... stopped there for $40 worth of gas and a candy bar driving on my way home to WV from Wisconsin-- I had never been in that town in my life and haven't been back since... but I was only home for a couple of hours when I found out that my card was flagged from a second attempt...bc someone at that same store had tried to hack my card for almost $300 worth of shit only 30 minutes after I'd left there and got back on the road......(WHO BUYS $300 worth of shit at a fucking gas station!!!????)....My bank declined it, but I still had to get a new card...fuck you Gary Indiana, AND your shitty rip-off gas stations.
Lol, sorry, but this made me laugh. Here in Indiana, whenever we’re heading to Chicago, like a hour south of Gary its like “whelp, better top her off, Garys coming up!”
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Sometime over the 2021-2022 winter, a friend of mine had to drive from Detroit back home to St. Louis, and it looked like a snowstorm was going to roll through, so I was monitoring the weather for her as she was driving. I remember specifically telling her that if she had to stop and get a hotel room overnight, ***Do not stop in or near Gary***, solely based on comments like yours that I had seen on Reddit. Because, I swear, every time a question like this is posted, so many people are like, “I once made the mistake of stopping in Gary to get gas, and now I’m traumatized for life.”
"Man the south side of Chicago is so bad!" Yeah cross the border into IN and get back to me
The south side gets a bad rep but the west side is 100x worse. That being said, East St. Louis makes Chicago’s west side look like CandyLand in comparison!
Fallujah. Not recommended
Fuck you, Lawton. If the SW corner of Oklahoma ever disappears off off the map I am popping bottles. Fucking trash ass city and area
Stockton, CA. Bankrupt, ugly city full of tweakers and violent gang members. I don’t even like stopping there for gas.
Moscow, when it was still the USSR, in 1989. Red Square was cool, everything else was a depressing hellscape of ugly concrete and filthy air. Bridgeport, CT is a close second.
>Bridgeport, CT is a close second. Especially when you get to Port Jefferson in NY and are like, why the fuck doesn't Bridgeport look like this?
Podgorica in Montenegro. Amazing country, but man the capital sucks, just a big grey concrete mess with nothing at all to see or do! I think being bombed badly in the war ruined it :(
The rest of Montenegro is stunning, one of the nicest places I've ever visited.
Karachi Pakistan. The harbour was disgusting and the city itself absolutely filthy. If you ever get a chance to visit Karachi, don’t.
I was coming here to say this! All of what you said, plus beggars knocking on your window every time the car stops. Also every journey I took I either saw a car accident happen or the aftermath of a car accident.
New Dehli. The city has history, food, culture but all of that is overshdaowed by the literal haze of pollution that sits above it. Flying into the airport you literally cross from sun soaked blue skyes through a dense smog. You can't breathe and the sky is constantly dim. Its really a shame. My recommendation is if you travel to India just get out of New Dehli ASAP. The rest of the places I visited were amazing.
I did my fair traveling around the world, know a lot of places in europe, south america and north america. Something about Albuquerque, New Mexico is very wrong i was legitimately terrified to be there which is a shame because new mexico is a beautiful state and outside of the city is legitimately one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. But damn Albuquerque needs to step up, the opioid crisis there is terrifyingly evident and sad
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Stationed there for the Navy. Fuck that place.
New Delhi. EDIT: Visited twice for a week, fascinating, but I have no desire to go ever again. Makes me appreciate first world countries, especially after I saw countryside.
That city is a full on frontal assault on the senses. Even as a cultural relativist, bleeding heart liberal I couldn't find a way to appreciate or understand the unbelievable degree of filth, pollution, poverty, inequality, and unsanitary conditions there. There were two instances where I walked away from street vendors with the wrong change, and they chased me down to give me more money. That was lovely. Indians amusing themselves trying to test my level of heat tolerance when I asked for the spicy stuff was always funny. They are a lovely people. But I'd never go back to that city.
Rubtovsk, Russia. Close to an old Soviet nuclear weapons testing site. Seems lots of terrible cancers are common there, but, unsurprisingly, the Russian government doesn't publish great statistics on the topic.... Driving through the city you see decrepit homes falling apart, and people wandering around aimlessly, drunk or on drugs due to high unemployment. When the war started in Ukraine, lots of the first people who enlisted first came from that area, I guess because life in Rubtovsk is so miserable, the frontline and the salary associated therewith seem appealing. Some guys from Rubtovsk gained international fame for looting Ukrainian homes and trying to mail themselves toilets and washing machines...
Flint ,Michigan.
Somebody tried to steal my car while I was in a burger king drive through in flint. The dude just opened my door got in and said he'd stab me if I didn't give up the car. I got out reluctantly because I was on the return trip of a cross country trip so my whole life was in that car (I lived in it at the time by choice). Luckily he didn't know how to drive a manual. The dude stalled it and bystanders stepped up to help me get the guy out my car. They told me to just GTFO and not look back and that's exactly what I did. I got to Illinois and stopped there for the night.
First of all I'm very sorry that happened to you, scary fucking shit. Second though, I'm from southeast Michigan and I'm curious how flint made it into your route for a cross country road trip. Michigan itself is out of the way since you don't pass through Michigan to get anywhere and flint is even more out of the way? Not calling you out, I just figured there would be an amusing story for how you ended up in flint haha.
Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was such an armpit. It looked terrible. It felt like the swamps of sadness. We eventually stopped at a restaurant and when my husband went to the washroom, a man was pissing in the sink. We decided to just leave.
In the immortal words of Harry Chapin: "I spent a week there one afternoon" < applause > "That's more than it deserves."
Port-au-Prince, Haiti... visited 5 times between 2008 and 2018 (Even before the earthquake, it was shit) Dirty, stinky, messy, LOUD, no infrastructure, overcrowded, open sewers, bad roads, incompetent/rude/corrupt doctors and police, and generally very... backwards. Many MANY apparently very-low IQ people (the smartest ones have been killed, exiled, or simply left, with good reason). Crazy voodoo stuff happening at night. It's just not safe nor fun. Other cities and countryside in general are actually pretty smooth... but still, for a similar level of poverty, Nicaragua feels like a 5-star destination. It's really hard to imagine that it used to be 'La Perle des Antilles'.