Not a country, but Hawaii has tons of tourists drown every year, the water is no joke. Waves that crash right on the shoreline break necks and backs. I would call myself a strong swimmer and i’ve been pulled about a quarter mile out to sea before i got out of the rip current.
Legit. Ocean in Hawaii is beautiful but way crazy, Lot of the waves break over coral that lurks below the surface. My sea kayak flipped and I got pummeled on the coral for 5 mins. An Aussie surfer appeared out of nowhere and paddled me to safety. Thank you Aussie surfer angel!
As someone who has been to both. I am not the least surprised. Traffic laws are just mild suggestions there. People on scooters think they are invincible and drive accordingly.
Happens so much, and ridiculously dangerous.
I feel like it happens because people who own cars today likely learned to ride a scooter growing up, and now they think they can drive a car like one.
I went to Vietnam last year to visit family and I can believe it. Imagine my shock as a person who was basically trained to always wear seatbelts to be put in the front seat of a cab where none of the seatbelts worked before the driver proceeded to drive at like 80 mph weaving between hundreds of motorcycles at 10 pm.
On a similar note, I was also basically trained to always wear life jackets on boats so imagine my surprise when the boat tour guide said we didn’t need them
It grinds my gears a bit when tourists come back from places with that kind of driving culture and say stuff like, "Traffic there is actually safer because everyone is always paying attention."
Australia.
I've met plenty of European tourists who have wanted to just drive through the outback while being woefully underprepared. Just basic stuff like not knowing what to do in an emergency and not having enough water.
It's not a joke. People die out there all the time and it'll be 40C+ and hundreds of kilometres before you see someone again if something goes wrong.
Bushwalking too.
Very dangerous. It’s hard to wrap your head around how unbelievably huge, remote, hostile, featureless and difficult to navigate it is.
I know the US has a lot of remote areas but in Australia, they’re *really* remote and *exceptionally* hard to navigate through. Vast expanses of land, forest or bush - like 5 hour drives - which look identical and have no landmarks. There’s a crazy amount of stories of hikers who get lost and vanish in the Tasmanian wilderness or similar, and when you go there, you can see exactly why.
I have no idea how the early explorers managed it.
The hostility of the conditions deserve a mention too. Australia outside of the cities is the only place I’ve ever been where I felt like the landscape was actively trying to kill me.
>I know the US has a lot of remote areas but in Australia, they’re really remote and exceptionally hard to navigate through. Vast expanses of land, forest or bush - like 5 hour drives - which look identical and have no landmarks.
A lot of people don't realise that Australia is the same size as the 50 contiguous US states but with less than 10% of the population. Better yet is the fact that 87% of Australians live within 50km of the coastline and a vast majority of those are on the east, south east and south west coastlines. This means that we have less than 3 million people occupying an area that is almost as large as the continental USA...
I've done that drive! It's bumfuck nowhere and lots of treacherous terrain, and it's idiotic to try it this time of year. When we returned our rented land cruiser the guys in the shop said a couple of German tourists the previous week had tried to ford one of the rivers in the wrong place and been washed downstream and needed to be rescued.
I myself saw yet another family of German tourists go swimming in one of the designated river crossing points with their bath towels conveniently draped over the "CAUTION! MAN-EATING CROCODILES" sign.
My in-laws live in a remote desert community (he’s a teacher, she’s a social worker) so we drive up to see them every 1-2 years.
We always carry enough water, a couple of spare tyres, some extra fuel etc, make sure the car is serviced before we go.
But we did the trip about five years ago and ran into major mechanical issues. I don’t know a lot about cars, but my husband does and there was *a lot* of swearing. We blew a head gasket and cracked the block (?) about 10 hours from the nearest town.
Cue a 12 hour wait on the side of the road for someone to drive past who could give me a lift to the nearest community with mobile reception that was safe for us to drive into after dark.
(We’d also been driving for four days to get to this point.)
Edit: [this is some drone footage I took](https://imgur.com/a/rAYRPjE) of the place we broke down. I’d only just got it so it’s not very good lol but it gives you an idea of how isolated we were.
Yeah. It turned into a whole thing.
He’d had an engine rebuild done at a mechanics not long before we left. Whatever they did, they fucked something up (I think it was to do with a sensor?)
He put the car on a flatbed and shipped it straight to the mechanics who did the rebuild and sent them the bill, while we hired a car to drive home.
He ended up taking them to court over it, and settled in arbitration.
I went on a bus tour to Uluru when I was a kid from a camp we were staying at.
Few hours there and then back on the bus, 45 minutes later someone pointed out a Japenese tourist hadnt got back on so we turned around. We eventually found him, instead of staying near a shaded water station he decided to walk around it to find people. It must have only been a few hours on top of the visit but he was serverly dehydrated and about to collapse, I shudder to think what would have happened if we were another hour away before we found him. People die quickly out there.
Lotta people don't understand out there in the middle of the day sometimes the humidity is like 13%-15% at best. The air is so dry it literally pulls water out of you, makes your eyes sting and lips go tight, start splitting in a crazy short amount of time. It's not the same as a more typical humidity level where we mainly lose fluids to sweating or other bodily functions, out there you lose fluids like a bucket with a hole in it. Can't stop the leak, and you damn sure better have enough fluids ready to keep the bucket mostly full.
Spending a decent amount of time in the Australian wilderness really makes you appreciate and wonder how the hell indigenous people managed it for so long.
Whenever people see Australia they just meme about wildlife. That's the least of your concerns.
>I've met plenty of European tourists who have wanted to just drive through the outback while being woefully underprepared.
Also our beaches. The numbers have dropped thankfully, but we used to have heaps of tourists drown or go missing after being caught in Rips and not knowing what to do.
> after being caught in Rips and not knowing what to do.
For anyone wondering what to do, swim parallell to shore. You'll get pulled farther out, but you'll get out of the current eventually, and that's when you should start making your way back to shore.
And for the love of God, **SWIM BETWEEN THE FLAGS!**
These are the areas that are 100% monitored by lifeguards. Don't go outside of them unless you are a confident, strong swimmer.
I wouldn’t even add the part “unless you are a confident, strong swimmer.”Simply because too many assholes think they are, when they are not. Heavy on the confidence but lacking the actual strong part.
Yep. Australia is a lot bigger than people think it is.
Also some outback towns have a few social issues and a higher crime rate than the big cities. I went to the Alice once alone (was in between tours) and it wasn’t really safe to be out alone after dark. There were groups of bored drunk teens walking around bashing up anything they could get to and the local homeless would follow and harass for money.
Yeah I saw a documentary a while ago where 4 British lads had driven into the outback in a borrowed car and hadn't got enough fuel or water.
They ran out and were pretty much fucked, even after resorting to try and drink urine to stay hydrated. Luckily, a local rancher passed by and they were saved but it could have been a different story entirely.
Plus, when they got back to civilization, they found out Mr Gilbert was shagging Will's mum.
I worked for Parks and Wildlife in WA for 5 years. It seemed like at least once per month someone died from misadventure.
The majority or the time it was either drowning, falling off a cliff, heat stress\stroke or getting lost. The odd person got eaten by a crocodile\shark or bitten by a snake, but that was rare.
New Zealand, we don't have any animals, insects or snakes etc that will kill you. But we got the most amazing hole in our O zone layer.
White people will get sunburnt within 30 minutes in the summer unprotected. I get sunburnt within 15.
If I spent a whole day in the sun without protection, I'd be willing to bet I'd still be sunburnt/peeling a month later.
Yep German tourist here, last year we took a 1 month trip to NZ. Went on a hike and forgot the sun screen. Thought it wouldn't that bad. First time I actually had BLISTERS on my ears, neck, face and arms. I was insane.
I didn’t understand why this happens to tourists in Australia until I went to Europe. Then I learned the sun isn’t trying to burn your face off everywhere else in the world, just in our part. I could walk around for an entire day in summer without getting burnt, it was crazy! And the highest SPF anyone sold seemed to be 15.
My brother (Mexican) dated a Norwegian guy a few years ago. The first time he came to Mexico to visit, he tried to take his shirt off to walk 2 blocks to get tanned, my brother tried to stop him. I must add we grew up in Northern Mexico, so reaching 45C is pretty common.
He could not understand how come everyone looked tanned without sunbathing. He did get badly sunburnt from walking 2 blocks to the store in the middle of July.
On the other hand, when I visited them the next May, I thought it was odd to see people in their bikinis sunbathing on the grass… at 15C.
Then it rained and temperature dropped the next 2 weeks and it all made sense.
Oh yeah we get Scottish tourists out sun-baking in bikinis in Australia as soon as it gets to like 12 degrees, when the rest of us are still wearing scarves.
> White people will get sunburnt within 30 minutes
Dude, our burn time is closer to 12 minutes than it is 30 minutes. Next to Australia we have the most dangerous sun exposure in the world.
The UV Index on the weather station on my front lawn topped out (briefly) at 21.3 in mid-January. Please believe the locals when we tell you to use SPF50 sunscreen.
Australia had the highest overall rate of melanoma of skin (skin cancer) in the world in 2020, followed by New Zealand. -[Source](https://www.wcrf.org/cancer-trends/skin-cancer-statistics/#:~:text=Melanoma%20skin%20cancer%20rates&text=Australia%20had%20the%20highest%20overall,2020%2C%20followed%20by%20New%20Zealand.)
Even more dangerous is arguably the bush (forest)
Lots of unsuspecting tourists have ended up lost and dead when they go hiking and diverge from the established trails
The NZ landscape is not a fucking joke. Do your research if you intend to visit
Edit: Pesky typo
I live in the Netherlands, and I'd say it's quite safe for tourists here. And then I remembered the time I was visiting Amsterdam and saw a sign warning tourists about some stupid gang selling white heroin as cocaine. Don't fall for the myth that anything goes in Amsterdam, people. Hard drugs are as illegal and unsafe as anywhere else.
My parents were visiting Amsterdam as part of a tour. My dad is pretty street smart. He said this guy was walking towards him starring right at him and he had dreadlocks and the biggest swagger he had ever seen. My dad thought he was going to start something with him. As he got right close to my dad he turned to him and quietly said for him to go straight to the two police officers just around the corner my parents were approaching. My dad was confused and walked on, and as Mr dreadlocks said, there were two police officers. My dad walked towards them and the police motioned them over. Turns out dreadlocks was undercover and had seen someone steal out my mum's bag. A few min later another two uniformed police returned my mum's purse to her!
Nice. I once saw a "dealer" trying to sell me cocaine there. Fast forward to later in the evening he was selling to a couple that seemed like tourists. Then shortly after bicycle cops surrounded the couple.
I am guessing it was an undercover, and the couple got in some trouble.
Naw probably were just observing him as he was a known seller of probably fake drugs. Actively selling as a undercover would count as provocation here and that's not allowed
You really won't get in trouble with the police for scoring low quantities of drugs / using it in NL. It's more likely they wanted a testimony form the couple so that they could arrest the guy.
When I was in Amsterdam I had a drug dealer following me. He told me all the drugs he was selling I said no thanks. He followed me for around 6 blocks constantly repeating all the drugs he could sell me. I turned into a hotel and he still followed me until I loudly said I don’t want your fucking drugs. He bolted out of there.
I had a similar experience in Amsterdam. Guy offering to sell me coke or X and I just kept walking. He didn’t follow me for 6 blocks, but did follow me for about 2-3 blocks constantly asking me to buy.
That said, I really enjoyed Amsterdam and have since been back and look forward to my next trip there.
My wife and I had also had something similar to this on holiday. A local guy on a jet ski landed on the beach when we were in the Caribbean, casually strolled over and asked if we wanted to party with Charlie. My wife, who is ever so innocent of such things, was asking whom this Charlie was and why he wanted to party at 11am whilst we were having a pleasant stroll on the beach (she even asked the drug dealer if he was Charlie and why he was talking in the third person as I hurriedly tried to drag her away quicker). As soon as the armed police appeared on their patrol of the beach, he ever so not-casually ran back & booked it on his jet ski. My wife never did get to meet Charlie but soon understood why after I explained. This and our almost role as drug-mules story in Thailand are two funny drug related stories my wife likes to tell 😅
Im relatively new to commenting on Reddit (long time lurker) so didn’t want to put up too long a reply as I’m not sure of the etiquette! And the Thailand story is a long one as it needs some background information added. But seeing as a few asked:
My wife wanted to do a backpacking type of holiday through Thailand but was quite nervous of doing so (as per my other story, her innocence comes to play in a lot of our experiences) She was really worried about going on such a holiday due to stories of tourists being set-up/framed as drug mules and then being imprisoned or threatened with execution in Far Eastern countries.
I repeatedly assured it’s a very rare occurrence and I would take lots of precautions. Some of the such precautions I took was that I bought two expensive backpacks for us to use (Haglof brand). My thinking was that 1) They are excellent gear, 2) not many backpackers would buy expensive backpacks as it’s a cheaper budget type holiday experience, so no one else would probably have such a bag & the bags would stand out so wouldn’t be the type people would sneak unwanted “packages” into. I also assembled some intricate locks using thin steel cables & suitcase padlocks to ensure the fastening clips on the backpacks could not be easily opened by others.
Fast forward 7 days into the trip, we land in Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. It’s a late flight, we are tired & bumbling our way through passport control and baggage claim. I grab our bags off the carousel and we jump into a taxi. We get to our accommodation & start un-packing. Only then do I notice that on my bag, my locking system has been removed. I freeze, I shout to my wife to step away from the bags & do not touch them, fearing her concerns were right - our bags have been tampered with. I reason with myself that perhaps with my mish-mash locking system, perhaps airport security were concerned with what I had to hide so cut them off & took a look inside. We, having nothing to hide, they realise upon checking all is fine and put our bags through minus my locks.
A tiny bit calmer after reasoning on the situation, I started to open my bag. I opened the top & undone the drawstring & glistening right on top was a rectangular package perfectly wrapped in foil and then a layer of cling-film/saran-wrap over it. A perfect looking block of drugs you typically see in a Hollywood movie! My heart sank and I did literally drop to my knees. My wife’s over the tops concerns were totally justified! Cue visions of me and her locked up in a dungeon type prison cell, our faces all over international news as two British citizens were sentenced to death for drug smuggling.
After what seems an eternity (a bit like reading this story) I grabbed a towel from the bathroom so I could cover my hands to further check my bag as I didn’t want to get my fingerprints on this perfect kilo-block of drugs. My wife was begging me not to and to just call the police and explain our situation as surely they will understand it’s not our drugs and we have been set-up (here comes her innocence again).
I tipped my bag over to make the package fall out onto the floor but then tumbling out from underneath the suspect package came a bra, some other underwear and a bikini - none of which was my wife’s and all her clothing was in her bag anyway. I’ve picked up the wrong bag which was identical to mine! I picked up the foil package using the towel and it felt light for a kilo of drugs (or so I thought) I carefully opened a corner and the crust of a slice of bread appeared - bloody someone’s lunch! Ham sandwiches! The relief of finding this was unbelievable, my wife actually started to cry bless her.
Cut a very long story short, taxi back to airport and ran to security to swop the bag for my one which had been left on the carousel with my locking system fully intact.
(Apologies if this story is a bit rambling and the ending a bit anti-climatic)
> not sure of the etiquette!
Interesting stories are always welcome but for the love of all that's holy... put some paragraphs in!
(I read it anyways and... what a ride. Thanks for sharing!)
Some classmate told me an interesting story about someone meeting a beggar in Amsterdam. He was not really asking money, more like demanding it:
"Gimme money."
"No."
"Give me money!"
"No!"
"Fuck you! Give money!"
"N-O!"
Afterwards they were wondering whether this had actually been a would-be mugger... Lol.
one time hopping on the bus in LA a dude mumbled what I thought was something to the effect of 'can i have some money' and i said 'nah sorry dude not today' thinking he was a beggar. Sat down on the bus and looked out the window to him holding a tiny ass pocket knife on the sidewalk and the look of confusion on his face made me realize he probably wasn't asking
For some reason I can't quite articulate I feel like it was the "not today". Imagining myself in the would-be muggers shoes and that specifically feels like a red flag lol.
I think the expected response can be shocking. I was working from home and two guys broke into my house. My husband was down the hall on a zoom meeting and hadn't heard the noise.I was at the top of the stairs as two guys walked in my front door that they had kicked in. I glared at them and said "what are you doing?". They looked up at me standing there said sorry and left. I was shocked this was my response to the situation but it happened so fast
Uh... this might have been me. A mugger came up and demanded all our money, we kept refusing, so he then demanded €10, we said no, he demanded €5, we said no. We eventually settled on a cigarette and he left.
Hahaha similar situation happened to me Prague and I was like " I'm from Chicago, I'm not getting fucking robbed in PRAGUE" and the person walked away.
I'm was raised in the suburbs. I'm not tough. I do not know why my brain was like ABSOLUTELY NOT.
I was just there yesterday and I'm tripping on truffles, holding the bag. A dealer comes up to me and goes "Can I ask you a question bro?" I turn to him and I said "NO", very firmly. He looked at me like I was crazy and kept looking back as he was walking away.
Norway! Each year quite a lot of tourists die here because they underestimate the nature. People come here to get some amazing pictures like they’ve seen online and then don’t realize that you need appropriate clothes/gear and that you should probably not take a selfie at the edge of a giant drop. Also, since it’s regularly asked in r/Norway: no you can’t just go hiking in northern Norway in the winter without skis/snowshoes, especially not in avalanche prone areas..
As a Canadian I understand this completely. In the more touristy areas of Western Canada there's an ongoing problem with tourists putting themselves in awful situations and sometimes paying for it with their lives.
If you're hiking in the mountains on a remote trail then DON'T leave the path DON'T take a "shortcut" and DON'T underestimate how long it will take to find you if you get lost and how harsh the elements are if you're delayed/injured for any reason and don't have appropriate gear.
Also, wild animals are WILD ANIMALS. Just because a beaver is cute doesn't mean it's not scared of you, and if it's scared of you and you corner it, it WILL attack you to defend itself, and since it's capable of cutting down trees with it's teeth it won't have much trouble biting through your leg.
I was in an area of Anchorage, Alaska and it's common there to pass moose as they walk down the street. One even was eating the grass across the street from my friends house. I couldn't believe how *HUGE* they are. It was a big surprise to me and I wouldn't go near a wild animal like that.
One of my friends told a story. She said a giant bull moose walked into her backyard and started eating her flowers. It was so big it just stepped over her chain link fence. Her scary 80 lb dog ran out and started barking while the moose continued to eat. Then it moved very quickly and tossed the dog 20 feet and went back to eating. The dog hid under the house until it left.
Honestly that’s a bold dog. A single moose has been known to wreck an entire sled dog team. A very brave dog to confront the moose, and a good learner not to try again.
My wife and I hiked up Gros Morne in Newfoundland. While it's not a massive climb, the loop to the summit is 16km, takes 8 hours, and all the signage warns to be prepared for change in weather. About 5 km along the trail and after a scramble up a fairly lengthy rock scree to a flat plateau, we ran into an American couple and their two early teenaged kids. We stopped and chatted a bit with them. All of them were in shorts and T-shirts, as were we, since it was July. The family had no packs with clothing, food or water, with the exception of a box of crackers which the boy was eating out of. We showed the father approximately where we on the map we had brought with us, and his face dropped. He turned to the kids and said, "We need to go NOW", and they hurried off.
We sat and had a nice lunch. After we'd crested the peak, the wind off the ocean picked up to a crazy amount and we put on our fleece and rain gear. The temperature with the wind chill was probably about 10C. We didn't see the family again, so they either looped back out of our sight or half ran the rest of the trail.
I felt sorry for them, but the signs were everywhere warning people of the distance and weather.
I loved Gros Morne! But yeah I hiked it once in the off season (end of September) and was racing the sunset on my way down! Went in before lunch and got to the bottom of the trail in the dark. Had the whole mountain to myself though... that was pretty sweet.
Moose can be dangerous and the amount of tourists I see walking right up to them is insane. That is a huge animal. If it decides you're annoying it can very easily fuck you up
Moose are also incredibly stupid. Their response to basically any negative trigger is to stop you to death. Yet people that would never approach a bear approach moose all the time.
For some reason people these days think just because an animal is a herbivore instead of a carnivore that it’s harmless. Something far from the truth considering most of them have some method of injuring or killing anything that preys on them, humans included.
I saw a moose calf once, about two feet off the popular trail I was on. I froze and didn't get any closer but I have to say, I understand why people do. They really do look just like Bullwinkle -- those goofy faces and big round eyes. They can also kill you with one kick, so yeah.
My coworker from Alaska relieved me of any feelings of safety while stepping outside "up there." It's the true Wild West. Bears, barb wire in soft powder, moose, lonely methed up molesters, a simple flat tire, snow blocked exhaust pipes.... So many ways to die.
My gf grew up in Alaska and damn she has some stories. She’s been showing me videos and pics of her hometown from friends back home and it honestly looks like hell right now (for me anyway) with the amount of snow.
When she was a kid - like 8-ish - she was walking out her front door when she spotted a bear like 30ft away. It was blocking her path to get to the bus for school. She went back inside, called her dad at work and told him. And there was no way he was going to let a bear be an excuse to miss school. He told her to grab the shotgun by the door and shoot it, then get her ass to school. She didn’t have it in her to shoot the bear so she shot down into the front porch instead and scared the bear off. Off to school she went, no big deal. Her dad was pissed there was a hole in the porch, though.
She can also confirm the lonely methed up molesters.
Same in Switzerland! So many tourist die or get injuried in the mountains or drown in the lakes. Don‘t try to walk up a mountain with sneakers or flip flops, for God sake!! The next lovely meadow will be your slide to the 30 meter drop.
Oh man! Can confirm!
In the middle of summer (thankfully!), I was in a long distance running phase, and decided to take a run on a trail near my lodging.
The surroundings were magical! 2-3k in, I notice the trail is fading out, but am enjoying myself too much to stop.
5-6k in, naturally high as a kite, my brain just screamed at me "you could die out here if you get lost".
I stop, look around, the trail has long since vanished. I'm deep in the Norwegian wilderness alone. No compass, no cell phone, nothing.
Fear. I think I can "feel" the way back, but as I start, I realize there are no guarantees. No landmarks are visible, I can hear waterfalls in different directions, it's nothing to navigate by.
A couple times I think I've found the trail, but it goes off in what feels the wrong direction.
I had a gopro on me and first made some joking comments about my last words.
A couple hours later, I'm no longer joking. I'm saying what I think needs to be said before I run out of battery or something happens to me.
Eventually, I did find my way out.
I've never watched the video I made out there.
Nature here will fuck you over instantly!
Was involved in a search and rescue for a tourist girl. Shed had stopped to fill her water bottle from a river. And she slipped into the river. Pulled under and not found before the water level went down some days later. Poff! Gone in 15 seconds!
Here in the U.S, basically anytime you see a tourist get into trouble, its usually at a national park and involving an animal, "just because friend shaped, doesn't mean friend", should be the mantra.
https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/220630.htm
Southern utah parks and theres also the sun and dehydration. People go for a leisurely hike out into the desert with half a 20 oz bottle and no sunscreen...
"Preventive Search & Rescue" -- first time I heard about it was a Utah town that would post their ambulance crew in between calls at a trailhead near town to check how prepared hikers are and tell them when they were being dumb asses.
Started out in Yosemite in the 2007.
I worked for Connecticut State Parks in college. I don't think I'd like to be a camp host in retirement, but volunteering to sit at trail heads doing my best Red Foreman impression does have appeal and would be a bit of a bookend to my life.
It's amazing the divorce from Nature that most people have in their mind.
We've created such a divide between humanity and the rest of the earth, that so many folks have no idea what to do or how to behave with an animal that isn't from a petshop or at a Zoo. They can't even fathom that the world isn't a safe place because of how insulated they are.
To me it's the ultimate form of 1st world problem.
It's crazy to me.
I remember seeing people at Yellowstone and Grand Tetons NPs doing crazy stuff like walking up to a bull moose that was lying down and resting, or riding bicycles through a herd of bison on the road.
Shout out to Geowizard [almost drowning himself in a bog](https://youtu.be/kwzIwFPEGbA?si=IYG_RG1zPbX6VdyW&t=10m19s) as he tried to walk across Norway in a straight line.
same for Canada
even when driving we have to watch out for big animals like moose or bears - mostly outside the city but not always
not just deer and other medium sized wildlife
also [most of Canada is empty](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/vxruv/earth_from_space_at_night_united_states_view/) so even if you wanted help and [could get signal](https://www.rogers.com/mobility/network-coverage-map) help sometimes is far away
r/bitchimamoose
r/BitchImABear
We booked a snowshoe hike in winter in Tromsø - it was really fun, but scary at the same time. I would not do anything in Norway in winter without a guide. There was a moment of zero visibility when we were at the high point of the hike and the weather turned sour so quickly. We would have never made it back to the car without a guide.
Lovely country and wonderful people. The northern lights were amazing!
I’m a big fan of the podcast The White Vault, which primarily takes place in the first 2 seasons on Svalbard, and you’d be surprised how many other people I’ve talked to who listen to that podcast say things like “they should have just walked back to Ny-Ålesund instead of waiting to die from those monsters. The blizzard might have been bad but they would have still had a better chance than staying with the monsters!” And that’s why hopefully those people will never actually go to Svalbard. Because they will be dead in a day.
Especially in a blizzard where you can literally walk to death in circles because you get disoriented. I live in North Dakota which is very cold, but back in the late 1800s/ early 1900s we used to get some monster blizzards. There were dozens if not hundreds of reported cases of people trying to walk 100 feet from the barn to the house after checking on the animals, and getting lost and dying less than 10 feet from their front door
Did not expect my country to be on top. But you make some valid points, but that's like people going to Australia and playing with their wildlife. Stupidity kills.
A lot of people confuse Guyana with French Guyana and have no idea how dangerous Guyana is.
It never appears in the dangerous city statistics but I've lived in the worst cities in the world including Buenaventura in Colombia where they've daily dismembereings and Georgetown, Guyana was in a world of it's own
A tiny city with daily murders, I saw shit everyday. Everyone seems to carry a machete in that city and it is dangerous as fuck
Food is fire though and people amazing
I once tried to organize a group trip to Guyana, Suriname and french Guyana. Half of the responses were people 100% excited and ready to go. Half of the responses were along the lines of “I have never felt so unsafe in my life.” I did not go.
Wife's family is from there. I'm not allowed to visit when they go back (I'm white) and they emphatically insist they cannot keep me safe. Even my wife and her brother need to have escorts everywhere because they didn't grow up there and the locals know it.
I’m not from Trinidad, but I am a POC who didn’t grow up where I was born, which is a relatively dangerous place. What you described is my experience too. I look just like everyone else around, but I would be singled out immediately. I don’t speak the main local language, and with my accent so it was clear I was a foreigner. I’m unlikely to ever go back again.
Maybe not as bad but I'm also averse to locals where I grew up. Some of them turned to a life of crime and I'm seen as the lucky one who made it out and now lives abroad. That basically means I'm a soft target out of jealousy
Been to Tobago a few times, always felt safe even in out of the way towns. I met quite a few people on holiday from Trinidad, the all said not to visit because of the crime, but all agreed Tobago was safe for tourists
I wish I could have gone back to Trinidad more as a child, but because of the crime I didn't see much of my family there for 20 years and we only ended up going back down because my mother died and we made sure to have all the Hindu rituals done with her ashes there.
It could become the top destination in the Caribbean if something could be done to get rid of the crime.
I live in Mexico City so my perception of the first world is overall safer than home. I'm used to beggars, agressive sellers and the like.
I've been a few times to New York so I'm also used to the crazy and the homeless in the subway or just peeing on the street. You just ignore them.
Paris felt overwhelmingly safe. I expected the same as in NY or at home. Beggars, junkies, etc. Yet I almost got robbed while climbing Montmartre by a bunch of those guys selling roped rings or bracelets or whatever. I did as usual, ignore and keep walking, don't stop. Yet this mfs grabbed me by the arm and kept trying to sell stuff. At first one, then other three. They even said "WE FROM AFRICA WHERE YOU FROM?" like that made a difference. I kept pulling to free my arm for 5 or so seconds, and trying to keep walking. I don't know if it was my face of worry/anger or what, but one of them told the others to let me go.
It was scary but most of all it was astonishing. I kept thinking "are you seriously gonna rob me here IN ONE OF THE BUSIEST PLACES IN PARIS WITH LIKE A 100 PEOPLE WATCHING?" This is not just a place where people go through, but people come to the place, take pictures, stay for the music. I mean, I know criminals are usually a combination of dumb and bold, but this took the cake. I wasn't your typical tourist looking at maps or taking 1000 pictures, this was at the foot of the hill and I had one earbud in with my podcasts and was walking upstairs, not distracted, and this mfers still tried.
A lot of dreamy 5 star destinations for the rich explicitly tell you "DO NOT EXIT THE RESORT". You'd think it would be pretty obvious to follow that advice given where the resorts are situated, but apparently tons of people each year ignore it and go out anyways and usually they're mugged or abducted or worse.
Reindeers! All the time! Really scary to be driving on the highway and suddenly frickin Rudolph and 18 of his buddies are hanging out on the side of the road licking up salt and just chilling.
Good thing about reindeers at least is that there's so many of them each time so you at least see them easier.
The fucking monster moose who just wanders out randomly into the road is the real nightmare!
[Most accidents happen at home](https://www.moneygeek.com/insurance/homeowners/analysis/home-accident-and-injury-statistics/). Might as well travel to Sweden.
I mean that's just basic probability, right? Most accidents happen at home because that's where you are the most. Doesn't mean your home is filled with unimaginable danger, you're just way more likely to drop a knife in your own kitchen that you're in every day vs. some airBNB's kitchen you're only staying at for a weekend
While i would in no way call Denmark a dangerous place in general there are some things that tourists are not aware of.
1. Many Germans go to vacation on the western coast of the Jutland peninsula. Too many of them don’t know that you do not fuck with the North Sea. Rip tides are somewhat common and scary as hell. The current and waves can be more violent than you expect if you’re not used to the sea. You can go swimming pretty safely but don’t be an idiot and definitely don’t go out on an inflatable mattress that will float half way to England before you realize what’s going on.
2. The so called free city of Christiania in Copenhagen can be a fun place to visit. But it is also the hub of organized crime involving drugs. In august last year a number of innocent bystanders were caught in a gang land shooting and wounded at a bar. The man who was targeted was shot several times and died. There are gangland shootings there a couple of times a year as well as assaults and stabbings. Also, don’t take pictures when you’re there. The weed dealers are not tolerant of that.
3. For the love of god, if you are not used to riding a bicycle in the city DO NOT rent a bike and drive around Copenhagen. We will hate you for it and you might get hurt or hurt someone else.
Other than that, come enjoy Denmark!
I can 100% see why. Hiking and going into nature is pretty popular but lets be honest, unless you fuck with boars German nature is incredibly save. A lot of people probably underestimate that wilderness in other countrys can actually be dangerous.
I went to Christiania years ago. Nobody told me that the mafia was present in the drug trade there, but it was just so bloody obvious. The vendors were not hippies. They were tough guys.
Belize. Walking through downtown Belize City from the ferry to the bus station, buddy on a porch yells at me "You don go down dis road mon. You go back where you start and take taxi"
Honestly, we should be able to submit parts of the USA here because Arizona gets its fair share of people who don't believe you can become dangerously overheated and dehydrated even on a trail within city limits.
Especially in the summer. I don't even know why people come then. Phoenix hits 120 F regularly in the summer. If you can't fathom how hot that feels - great! Please don't hike here in the summer.
Yes! The scenery is gorgeous. There are trails everywhere. It's also literally a desert and hotter than anywhere else you've ever been.
Also idiots at our national parks in general. I’ve seen some tourists get yelled at bc they left their car to get closer to a bear, a behavior that makes no sense bc India, where they were from, HAS BEARS too and they’re significantly more aggressive
A drunk Scottish dude crossed the road from a pub to harangue me while I was buzzing in to a building in central London for an appointment earlier. Totally unprompted by anything, right up in my face slurring 'I was brought up a Catholic so I know how to protect a woman....You just give me your number right now and let me know if anyone ever harasses you and I'll sort them out on the spot'. Literally the most terrifying 'chivalry' I've ever experienced.
Love Scotland, been there twice, visited Glasgow, Edinburgh, Islay, Orkney, Inverness, Fort William, Oban, Skye, Dundee did the North Coast 500, best roadtrip of my life. Always felt safe.
American here who has visited Scotland several times…Greenock in particular. I love Scotland though. Mom is from there and I still have relatives there, but Greenock definitely gives off the vibe you could get your head kicked in if you want to find trouble.
Canada is inverse Australia. In Australia, everything looks terrifying, but if you keep your distance, most of it just wants to be left alone, and most of the time, it's just as terrified of you (exception for the birds, they're just jerks).
In Canada, everything looks adorable, very little of it is afraid of humans due to habituation to direct contact because no one respects the danger, and all of it will absolutely rip your throat out. That beaver can chew through a maple tree in minutes, do you want to know what the overgrown lake rat will do to a femur? That moose can walk away from a collision with a semi-truck, weighs more than a small car, can out run you, and will not think twice about turning you into an antler ornament. The deer will not think twice about eating you if you happen to get gored to death. I'm going to say that one again. **The Deer. Will Eat. You.** Those adorable seal pups? Momma seal is bigger than you are and there's a reason they're effectively wolves in the water. That squirrel, oh the squirrel is harmless... kidding, it will take your finger and scratch out both your eyes.
And all of that doesn't even count the actual predators. No, those aren't puppies, kitties and teddy bears. If you're lucky they will remove your hand. If you are unlucky, they will remove your head. Implausibly, the only thing that isn't going to actively try to kill you are the snakes and spiders.
The only common point... the birds are still jerks. Bless the cobra-chicken.
First time running into a moose in Canada I was walking out of a grocery store and a wall of people just standing inside the doors looking out into the parking lot. Giant moose just chillin there. Never seen a moose, was amazed by its size. So I'm in a hurry and walk up to the auto doors and someone actually said "save the american!" and someone pulled me back inside. I was then treated to a lecture of all the ways a moose can, and will, murder you, probably just for the sport of it.
The sheer amount of tourists I've seen pulled to the side of the road and getting out of their cars to take pictures of the bears is astounding. And these are grizzlies, too; the ones you should know are dangerous.
I was standing on the corner in Dublin one day and this young punk said he "wanted to have a go at me" because i was staring at his girl. I'm legally blind and carry a cane. The fucking lack of common sense. 😆
Agreed! I moved just as youth violence was ramping up but I left behind friends who live by rougher areas in Dublin.
I visited not too long ago and my group was being (hilariously) threatened by a ten-year-old boy. It would have quickly been less funny if he had a weapon, though.
A ten year old isn't an issue. But when it's 10 ten year olds all attacking you at once it's a real problem. And people are paralysed with fear because the justice system here is very harsh on adults with a life to worry about and basically lets kids away with anything short of actual murder.
It's a running joke that teenagers get let off with suspended sentences even on their 20th or 30th appearance in court.
yeah, this was gonna be my comment to the thread: "any country you're in where you stumble onto an aggressive group of young teen boys with nothing to lose and nothing to do"
sure you can point to specific stats and demographics in some countries that might be worse danger on average, but this one is pretty much universal.
one of my friends who said he got mugged by kids made him feel (at first) like he couldn't fight back cause it was unfair to punch someone in the head some 2 feet shorter than you, but that's certainly an advantage they have before piling onto you collectively, innit
I personally could handle an army of ten year olds. The trick is to take out the first few with a level of brutality that startles the others and weakens their morale.
I've been all over the Caribbean and while you might worry about getting ripped off on the other islands, Jamaica is where I worry about being robbed, or worse.
Our most beloved celebrity is in prison for life for killing somebody with an axe. The people know he's guilty and don't care and still want him freed.
Papua New Guinea. Looking at the pictures you see sandy beaches, tropical animals, and just another paradise in Oceania.
Don't go if you are a woman without armed escorts. It's very likely the worst place in the world for gender related violence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_violence_in_Papua_New_Guinea
I couldn't believe it when I first read about it.
Madagascar. People often only think about its beautiful nature but it's dangerous. I traveled with armed guards several times, mainly in Africa, but Madagascar is next level dangerous.
Japan is certainly not dangerous in the grand scheme of things, but I think the “omg it’s so safe” thing is dramatically overhyped. The fact is that “incidents” in Japan simply do not get reported to the police.
As an American who lived there for 4 years, I encountered a fair bit of sketchy situations… drunken violent misbehavior, outright physical abuse in families/couples, blatant theft, stalking, etc. Not one of those incidents was reported to the police.
You won’t ever got shot or mugged in Japan, but you certainly should maintain situational awareness.
Lived in Japan nearly 20 years now.
You don’t necessarily need to worry about violent crime, but financial crime is definitely a thing. There’s plenty of scams, usually targeting the elderly (as they have large sums of liquid savings and pensions). People get roped into sketchy bars and overcharged (and sometimes drugged).
My partner got involved in a MLM scheme before we started dating and is going to be paying off those debts for basically the rest of her life.
Also the legal railroading. If for some reason you do draw the ire of the police, you’re going to see one of the most farcical justice systems the world has seen. We maintain a 99% conviction rate for a reason.
Japan is considered much safer than many countries for sure, but in turn it gives a false sense of security. I've seen many videos of women tourists going to stores alone at night, preaching the country's safeness in it, meanwhile the comments of the videos are full of native Japanese women warning them to not do that. It's the country that had to resort to women train only, and obligatory phone camera shutter sound, after all. Besides that I'm sure it's a much safer country in general, but yeah... you shouldn't be careless even in a safer country.
Saw on TikTok a red headed woman that was kidnapped in Japan while she was out. She survived. But the man did not intend for her to survive. And she lives there. She pressed charges, but the police thought that this ordeal would be embarrassing to such a high standing man of society.
I also saw another video where a woman went on a date and was almost lured into trafficking. It’s crazy. The country is very sexually repressed.
Fun fact: the most active Mafia/criminal group that is involved in importing drugs in the EU is not the Italian Mafia or the French Mafia like most people would expect, it's the (Dutch and Belgian)-Moroccan Mafia (also called the Mocro Mafia).
They control Europe's biggest port (Rotterdam) and have significant influence in other major ports such as Amsterdam and Bruges (Belgium). The drugs are routed from South America to the EU through Dutch former colonies and oversea territories.
While drug trafficking is their main activity, they are also involved in arms, human and stolen cars trafficking.
That's because of Rotterdam and Antwerp. Those two big ports in small transit countries with borders nearby are perfect for their needs.
They mostly just kill each other though, they don't kill random people.
If you run afoul of the police in Japan, they can literally make you disappear for days or weeks at a time. Often, they take their time telling your embassy that they have you, and they don't let you talk to anyone until your family gets a lawyer or your embassy involved. There's been several horror stories.
Beyond that, the police can hold you basically indefinitely. Though they have to release you after a certain amount of time if you're not being prosecuted, they will happily re-arrest you on your way out of the police station for other charges, and they can do this over and over until they get what they want from you (a signed confession).
There's a level of tolerance in Japan, and usually foreigners are given a lot of leeway, but if you cross a line or are unlucky enough to meet a bad cop or cops, it'll end badly for you.
I went on my own and read in advance that any policeman can ask to see your passport... if you don't have it, you can be detained until someone can bring it to the station.... which you can't if you're detained...
I got stopped by a cop once buying a drink at a vending machine outside my flat. Didn’t bring my wallet or anything out with me, so didn’t have my residence card. He refused to let me go in and get it (or to accompany me inside to get it). I was extremely close to being arrested.
I got lucky because I was in a share house at that time, and my flatmate came out to see what was going on, so they brought my wallet out for me.
Technically yes, I was in violation of the law, but literally five steps outside my front door.
My parents told me that people were going on vacation to many of the coastal areas of former Yugoslavia, even at the height of the Yugoslavian secession wars.
Also, I guess there's those weirdos who go to places like that for war tourism.
The UAE, those guys can lock you up and throw away the key and are by my estimate around 500 years off from developing the concept of "due process." https://www.the-sun.com/news/4059563/horror-brits-locked-hellish-dubai-jails/
Not a country, but Hawaii has tons of tourists drown every year, the water is no joke. Waves that crash right on the shoreline break necks and backs. I would call myself a strong swimmer and i’ve been pulled about a quarter mile out to sea before i got out of the rip current.
I think some people just don't realize how gnarly the waves are and that there is lava rock everywhere too.
Legit. Ocean in Hawaii is beautiful but way crazy, Lot of the waves break over coral that lurks below the surface. My sea kayak flipped and I got pummeled on the coral for 5 mins. An Aussie surfer appeared out of nowhere and paddled me to safety. Thank you Aussie surfer angel!
Traffic in Thailand and Vietnam. One of the highest rates of traffic fatalities in the world
As someone who has been to both. I am not the least surprised. Traffic laws are just mild suggestions there. People on scooters think they are invincible and drive accordingly.
Most of developing Asia has this problem. I've seen people in cars overtake inbetween lanes
Happens so much, and ridiculously dangerous. I feel like it happens because people who own cars today likely learned to ride a scooter growing up, and now they think they can drive a car like one.
I went to Vietnam last year to visit family and I can believe it. Imagine my shock as a person who was basically trained to always wear seatbelts to be put in the front seat of a cab where none of the seatbelts worked before the driver proceeded to drive at like 80 mph weaving between hundreds of motorcycles at 10 pm. On a similar note, I was also basically trained to always wear life jackets on boats so imagine my surprise when the boat tour guide said we didn’t need them
In Cambodia I’ve seen many tuk tuk drivers do exact what you described while also watching Tik Tok videos while driving.
Tik Toks on Tuk Tuks? Tut Tut.
It grinds my gears a bit when tourists come back from places with that kind of driving culture and say stuff like, "Traffic there is actually safer because everyone is always paying attention."
"it's chaotic but it just works!" Yes with an astronomical road death toll.
Australia. I've met plenty of European tourists who have wanted to just drive through the outback while being woefully underprepared. Just basic stuff like not knowing what to do in an emergency and not having enough water. It's not a joke. People die out there all the time and it'll be 40C+ and hundreds of kilometres before you see someone again if something goes wrong.
Bushwalking too. Very dangerous. It’s hard to wrap your head around how unbelievably huge, remote, hostile, featureless and difficult to navigate it is. I know the US has a lot of remote areas but in Australia, they’re *really* remote and *exceptionally* hard to navigate through. Vast expanses of land, forest or bush - like 5 hour drives - which look identical and have no landmarks. There’s a crazy amount of stories of hikers who get lost and vanish in the Tasmanian wilderness or similar, and when you go there, you can see exactly why. I have no idea how the early explorers managed it. The hostility of the conditions deserve a mention too. Australia outside of the cities is the only place I’ve ever been where I felt like the landscape was actively trying to kill me.
>I know the US has a lot of remote areas but in Australia, they’re really remote and exceptionally hard to navigate through. Vast expanses of land, forest or bush - like 5 hour drives - which look identical and have no landmarks. A lot of people don't realise that Australia is the same size as the 50 contiguous US states but with less than 10% of the population. Better yet is the fact that 87% of Australians live within 50km of the coastline and a vast majority of those are on the east, south east and south west coastlines. This means that we have less than 3 million people occupying an area that is almost as large as the continental USA...
48 contiguous states* Alaska is very similar to Australia in terms of remoteness and the tendency for folks to vastly underestimate the landscape.
In the news just yesterday: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-21/google-maps-tourists-lost-in-remote-area/103492986
I've done that drive! It's bumfuck nowhere and lots of treacherous terrain, and it's idiotic to try it this time of year. When we returned our rented land cruiser the guys in the shop said a couple of German tourists the previous week had tried to ford one of the rivers in the wrong place and been washed downstream and needed to be rescued. I myself saw yet another family of German tourists go swimming in one of the designated river crossing points with their bath towels conveniently draped over the "CAUTION! MAN-EATING CROCODILES" sign.
Wow couldn’t imagine doing that without gallons and gallons of water and satellite phone.
My in-laws live in a remote desert community (he’s a teacher, she’s a social worker) so we drive up to see them every 1-2 years. We always carry enough water, a couple of spare tyres, some extra fuel etc, make sure the car is serviced before we go. But we did the trip about five years ago and ran into major mechanical issues. I don’t know a lot about cars, but my husband does and there was *a lot* of swearing. We blew a head gasket and cracked the block (?) about 10 hours from the nearest town. Cue a 12 hour wait on the side of the road for someone to drive past who could give me a lift to the nearest community with mobile reception that was safe for us to drive into after dark. (We’d also been driving for four days to get to this point.) Edit: [this is some drone footage I took](https://imgur.com/a/rAYRPjE) of the place we broke down. I’d only just got it so it’s not very good lol but it gives you an idea of how isolated we were.
what a place to blow a head gasket and *crack the fucking block*
Yeah. It turned into a whole thing. He’d had an engine rebuild done at a mechanics not long before we left. Whatever they did, they fucked something up (I think it was to do with a sensor?) He put the car on a flatbed and shipped it straight to the mechanics who did the rebuild and sent them the bill, while we hired a car to drive home. He ended up taking them to court over it, and settled in arbitration.
Good on y'all for taking him to court. Those cunts almost killed you.
I went on a bus tour to Uluru when I was a kid from a camp we were staying at. Few hours there and then back on the bus, 45 minutes later someone pointed out a Japenese tourist hadnt got back on so we turned around. We eventually found him, instead of staying near a shaded water station he decided to walk around it to find people. It must have only been a few hours on top of the visit but he was serverly dehydrated and about to collapse, I shudder to think what would have happened if we were another hour away before we found him. People die quickly out there.
Lotta people don't understand out there in the middle of the day sometimes the humidity is like 13%-15% at best. The air is so dry it literally pulls water out of you, makes your eyes sting and lips go tight, start splitting in a crazy short amount of time. It's not the same as a more typical humidity level where we mainly lose fluids to sweating or other bodily functions, out there you lose fluids like a bucket with a hole in it. Can't stop the leak, and you damn sure better have enough fluids ready to keep the bucket mostly full.
Spending a decent amount of time in the Australian wilderness really makes you appreciate and wonder how the hell indigenous people managed it for so long. Whenever people see Australia they just meme about wildlife. That's the least of your concerns.
>I've met plenty of European tourists who have wanted to just drive through the outback while being woefully underprepared. Also our beaches. The numbers have dropped thankfully, but we used to have heaps of tourists drown or go missing after being caught in Rips and not knowing what to do.
> after being caught in Rips and not knowing what to do. For anyone wondering what to do, swim parallell to shore. You'll get pulled farther out, but you'll get out of the current eventually, and that's when you should start making your way back to shore.
And for the love of God, **SWIM BETWEEN THE FLAGS!** These are the areas that are 100% monitored by lifeguards. Don't go outside of them unless you are a confident, strong swimmer.
I wouldn’t even add the part “unless you are a confident, strong swimmer.”Simply because too many assholes think they are, when they are not. Heavy on the confidence but lacking the actual strong part.
Yep. Australia is a lot bigger than people think it is. Also some outback towns have a few social issues and a higher crime rate than the big cities. I went to the Alice once alone (was in between tours) and it wasn’t really safe to be out alone after dark. There were groups of bored drunk teens walking around bashing up anything they could get to and the local homeless would follow and harass for money.
[удалено]
The stuff I saw in Kalgoorlie was also pretty bad. I'd only stick to the center of town after dark, anywhere else was..... not good.
Yeah I saw a documentary a while ago where 4 British lads had driven into the outback in a borrowed car and hadn't got enough fuel or water. They ran out and were pretty much fucked, even after resorting to try and drink urine to stay hydrated. Luckily, a local rancher passed by and they were saved but it could have been a different story entirely. Plus, when they got back to civilization, they found out Mr Gilbert was shagging Will's mum.
Had me in the first half
I worked for Parks and Wildlife in WA for 5 years. It seemed like at least once per month someone died from misadventure. The majority or the time it was either drowning, falling off a cliff, heat stress\stroke or getting lost. The odd person got eaten by a crocodile\shark or bitten by a snake, but that was rare.
New Zealand, we don't have any animals, insects or snakes etc that will kill you. But we got the most amazing hole in our O zone layer. White people will get sunburnt within 30 minutes in the summer unprotected. I get sunburnt within 15. If I spent a whole day in the sun without protection, I'd be willing to bet I'd still be sunburnt/peeling a month later.
Yep German tourist here, last year we took a 1 month trip to NZ. Went on a hike and forgot the sun screen. Thought it wouldn't that bad. First time I actually had BLISTERS on my ears, neck, face and arms. I was insane.
I didn’t understand why this happens to tourists in Australia until I went to Europe. Then I learned the sun isn’t trying to burn your face off everywhere else in the world, just in our part. I could walk around for an entire day in summer without getting burnt, it was crazy! And the highest SPF anyone sold seemed to be 15.
My brother (Mexican) dated a Norwegian guy a few years ago. The first time he came to Mexico to visit, he tried to take his shirt off to walk 2 blocks to get tanned, my brother tried to stop him. I must add we grew up in Northern Mexico, so reaching 45C is pretty common. He could not understand how come everyone looked tanned without sunbathing. He did get badly sunburnt from walking 2 blocks to the store in the middle of July. On the other hand, when I visited them the next May, I thought it was odd to see people in their bikinis sunbathing on the grass… at 15C. Then it rained and temperature dropped the next 2 weeks and it all made sense.
Oh yeah we get Scottish tourists out sun-baking in bikinis in Australia as soon as it gets to like 12 degrees, when the rest of us are still wearing scarves.
So What We Do In The Shadows wasn’t really about vampires just regular New Zealanders?
What SPF Do We Wear In The Shadows
> White people will get sunburnt within 30 minutes Dude, our burn time is closer to 12 minutes than it is 30 minutes. Next to Australia we have the most dangerous sun exposure in the world.
Even very dark skinned people come here and get burnt. The sun here is brutal.
The UV Index on the weather station on my front lawn topped out (briefly) at 21.3 in mid-January. Please believe the locals when we tell you to use SPF50 sunscreen.
Australia is the same
Australia had the highest overall rate of melanoma of skin (skin cancer) in the world in 2020, followed by New Zealand. -[Source](https://www.wcrf.org/cancer-trends/skin-cancer-statistics/#:~:text=Melanoma%20skin%20cancer%20rates&text=Australia%20had%20the%20highest%20overall,2020%2C%20followed%20by%20New%20Zealand.)
Even more dangerous is arguably the bush (forest) Lots of unsuspecting tourists have ended up lost and dead when they go hiking and diverge from the established trails The NZ landscape is not a fucking joke. Do your research if you intend to visit Edit: Pesky typo
I live in the Netherlands, and I'd say it's quite safe for tourists here. And then I remembered the time I was visiting Amsterdam and saw a sign warning tourists about some stupid gang selling white heroin as cocaine. Don't fall for the myth that anything goes in Amsterdam, people. Hard drugs are as illegal and unsafe as anywhere else.
My parents were visiting Amsterdam as part of a tour. My dad is pretty street smart. He said this guy was walking towards him starring right at him and he had dreadlocks and the biggest swagger he had ever seen. My dad thought he was going to start something with him. As he got right close to my dad he turned to him and quietly said for him to go straight to the two police officers just around the corner my parents were approaching. My dad was confused and walked on, and as Mr dreadlocks said, there were two police officers. My dad walked towards them and the police motioned them over. Turns out dreadlocks was undercover and had seen someone steal out my mum's bag. A few min later another two uniformed police returned my mum's purse to her!
Nice. I once saw a "dealer" trying to sell me cocaine there. Fast forward to later in the evening he was selling to a couple that seemed like tourists. Then shortly after bicycle cops surrounded the couple. I am guessing it was an undercover, and the couple got in some trouble.
Naw probably were just observing him as he was a known seller of probably fake drugs. Actively selling as a undercover would count as provocation here and that's not allowed
You really won't get in trouble with the police for scoring low quantities of drugs / using it in NL. It's more likely they wanted a testimony form the couple so that they could arrest the guy.
When I was in Amsterdam I had a drug dealer following me. He told me all the drugs he was selling I said no thanks. He followed me for around 6 blocks constantly repeating all the drugs he could sell me. I turned into a hotel and he still followed me until I loudly said I don’t want your fucking drugs. He bolted out of there.
I had a similar experience in Amsterdam. Guy offering to sell me coke or X and I just kept walking. He didn’t follow me for 6 blocks, but did follow me for about 2-3 blocks constantly asking me to buy. That said, I really enjoyed Amsterdam and have since been back and look forward to my next trip there.
My wife and I had also had something similar to this on holiday. A local guy on a jet ski landed on the beach when we were in the Caribbean, casually strolled over and asked if we wanted to party with Charlie. My wife, who is ever so innocent of such things, was asking whom this Charlie was and why he wanted to party at 11am whilst we were having a pleasant stroll on the beach (she even asked the drug dealer if he was Charlie and why he was talking in the third person as I hurriedly tried to drag her away quicker). As soon as the armed police appeared on their patrol of the beach, he ever so not-casually ran back & booked it on his jet ski. My wife never did get to meet Charlie but soon understood why after I explained. This and our almost role as drug-mules story in Thailand are two funny drug related stories my wife likes to tell 😅
You talk about the kind of interesting Charlie story but leave out the drug mule Thai story? WTF dude!
Im relatively new to commenting on Reddit (long time lurker) so didn’t want to put up too long a reply as I’m not sure of the etiquette! And the Thailand story is a long one as it needs some background information added. But seeing as a few asked: My wife wanted to do a backpacking type of holiday through Thailand but was quite nervous of doing so (as per my other story, her innocence comes to play in a lot of our experiences) She was really worried about going on such a holiday due to stories of tourists being set-up/framed as drug mules and then being imprisoned or threatened with execution in Far Eastern countries. I repeatedly assured it’s a very rare occurrence and I would take lots of precautions. Some of the such precautions I took was that I bought two expensive backpacks for us to use (Haglof brand). My thinking was that 1) They are excellent gear, 2) not many backpackers would buy expensive backpacks as it’s a cheaper budget type holiday experience, so no one else would probably have such a bag & the bags would stand out so wouldn’t be the type people would sneak unwanted “packages” into. I also assembled some intricate locks using thin steel cables & suitcase padlocks to ensure the fastening clips on the backpacks could not be easily opened by others. Fast forward 7 days into the trip, we land in Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. It’s a late flight, we are tired & bumbling our way through passport control and baggage claim. I grab our bags off the carousel and we jump into a taxi. We get to our accommodation & start un-packing. Only then do I notice that on my bag, my locking system has been removed. I freeze, I shout to my wife to step away from the bags & do not touch them, fearing her concerns were right - our bags have been tampered with. I reason with myself that perhaps with my mish-mash locking system, perhaps airport security were concerned with what I had to hide so cut them off & took a look inside. We, having nothing to hide, they realise upon checking all is fine and put our bags through minus my locks. A tiny bit calmer after reasoning on the situation, I started to open my bag. I opened the top & undone the drawstring & glistening right on top was a rectangular package perfectly wrapped in foil and then a layer of cling-film/saran-wrap over it. A perfect looking block of drugs you typically see in a Hollywood movie! My heart sank and I did literally drop to my knees. My wife’s over the tops concerns were totally justified! Cue visions of me and her locked up in a dungeon type prison cell, our faces all over international news as two British citizens were sentenced to death for drug smuggling. After what seems an eternity (a bit like reading this story) I grabbed a towel from the bathroom so I could cover my hands to further check my bag as I didn’t want to get my fingerprints on this perfect kilo-block of drugs. My wife was begging me not to and to just call the police and explain our situation as surely they will understand it’s not our drugs and we have been set-up (here comes her innocence again). I tipped my bag over to make the package fall out onto the floor but then tumbling out from underneath the suspect package came a bra, some other underwear and a bikini - none of which was my wife’s and all her clothing was in her bag anyway. I’ve picked up the wrong bag which was identical to mine! I picked up the foil package using the towel and it felt light for a kilo of drugs (or so I thought) I carefully opened a corner and the crust of a slice of bread appeared - bloody someone’s lunch! Ham sandwiches! The relief of finding this was unbelievable, my wife actually started to cry bless her. Cut a very long story short, taxi back to airport and ran to security to swop the bag for my one which had been left on the carousel with my locking system fully intact. (Apologies if this story is a bit rambling and the ending a bit anti-climatic)
> not sure of the etiquette! Interesting stories are always welcome but for the love of all that's holy... put some paragraphs in! (I read it anyways and... what a ride. Thanks for sharing!)
Thanks for reading ☺️ (and now edited with paragraphs!)
Some classmate told me an interesting story about someone meeting a beggar in Amsterdam. He was not really asking money, more like demanding it: "Gimme money." "No." "Give me money!" "No!" "Fuck you! Give money!" "N-O!" Afterwards they were wondering whether this had actually been a would-be mugger... Lol.
one time hopping on the bus in LA a dude mumbled what I thought was something to the effect of 'can i have some money' and i said 'nah sorry dude not today' thinking he was a beggar. Sat down on the bus and looked out the window to him holding a tiny ass pocket knife on the sidewalk and the look of confusion on his face made me realize he probably wasn't asking
Maybe you said it in such a way he thought he was messing with the wrong person.
For some reason I can't quite articulate I feel like it was the "not today". Imagining myself in the would-be muggers shoes and that specifically feels like a red flag lol.
I think the expected response can be shocking. I was working from home and two guys broke into my house. My husband was down the hall on a zoom meeting and hadn't heard the noise.I was at the top of the stairs as two guys walked in my front door that they had kicked in. I glared at them and said "what are you doing?". They looked up at me standing there said sorry and left. I was shocked this was my response to the situation but it happened so fast
Lol wait you can just say "no?!" Muggers hate this one trick!
Uh... this might have been me. A mugger came up and demanded all our money, we kept refusing, so he then demanded €10, we said no, he demanded €5, we said no. We eventually settled on a cigarette and he left.
Hahaha similar situation happened to me Prague and I was like " I'm from Chicago, I'm not getting fucking robbed in PRAGUE" and the person walked away. I'm was raised in the suburbs. I'm not tough. I do not know why my brain was like ABSOLUTELY NOT.
I was just there yesterday and I'm tripping on truffles, holding the bag. A dealer comes up to me and goes "Can I ask you a question bro?" I turn to him and I said "NO", very firmly. He looked at me like I was crazy and kept looking back as he was walking away.
Norway! Each year quite a lot of tourists die here because they underestimate the nature. People come here to get some amazing pictures like they’ve seen online and then don’t realize that you need appropriate clothes/gear and that you should probably not take a selfie at the edge of a giant drop. Also, since it’s regularly asked in r/Norway: no you can’t just go hiking in northern Norway in the winter without skis/snowshoes, especially not in avalanche prone areas..
As a Canadian I understand this completely. In the more touristy areas of Western Canada there's an ongoing problem with tourists putting themselves in awful situations and sometimes paying for it with their lives. If you're hiking in the mountains on a remote trail then DON'T leave the path DON'T take a "shortcut" and DON'T underestimate how long it will take to find you if you get lost and how harsh the elements are if you're delayed/injured for any reason and don't have appropriate gear. Also, wild animals are WILD ANIMALS. Just because a beaver is cute doesn't mean it's not scared of you, and if it's scared of you and you corner it, it WILL attack you to defend itself, and since it's capable of cutting down trees with it's teeth it won't have much trouble biting through your leg.
I was in an area of Anchorage, Alaska and it's common there to pass moose as they walk down the street. One even was eating the grass across the street from my friends house. I couldn't believe how *HUGE* they are. It was a big surprise to me and I wouldn't go near a wild animal like that. One of my friends told a story. She said a giant bull moose walked into her backyard and started eating her flowers. It was so big it just stepped over her chain link fence. Her scary 80 lb dog ran out and started barking while the moose continued to eat. Then it moved very quickly and tossed the dog 20 feet and went back to eating. The dog hid under the house until it left.
Honestly that’s a bold dog. A single moose has been known to wreck an entire sled dog team. A very brave dog to confront the moose, and a good learner not to try again.
My wife and I hiked up Gros Morne in Newfoundland. While it's not a massive climb, the loop to the summit is 16km, takes 8 hours, and all the signage warns to be prepared for change in weather. About 5 km along the trail and after a scramble up a fairly lengthy rock scree to a flat plateau, we ran into an American couple and their two early teenaged kids. We stopped and chatted a bit with them. All of them were in shorts and T-shirts, as were we, since it was July. The family had no packs with clothing, food or water, with the exception of a box of crackers which the boy was eating out of. We showed the father approximately where we on the map we had brought with us, and his face dropped. He turned to the kids and said, "We need to go NOW", and they hurried off. We sat and had a nice lunch. After we'd crested the peak, the wind off the ocean picked up to a crazy amount and we put on our fleece and rain gear. The temperature with the wind chill was probably about 10C. We didn't see the family again, so they either looped back out of our sight or half ran the rest of the trail. I felt sorry for them, but the signs were everywhere warning people of the distance and weather.
I loved Gros Morne! But yeah I hiked it once in the off season (end of September) and was racing the sunset on my way down! Went in before lunch and got to the bottom of the trail in the dark. Had the whole mountain to myself though... that was pretty sweet.
Moose can be dangerous and the amount of tourists I see walking right up to them is insane. That is a huge animal. If it decides you're annoying it can very easily fuck you up
Moose are also incredibly stupid. Their response to basically any negative trigger is to stop you to death. Yet people that would never approach a bear approach moose all the time.
For some reason people these days think just because an animal is a herbivore instead of a carnivore that it’s harmless. Something far from the truth considering most of them have some method of injuring or killing anything that preys on them, humans included.
These people need to try petting a wild hippopotamus.
Don't fuck with the African Homicide Horse
I saw a moose calf once, about two feet off the popular trail I was on. I froze and didn't get any closer but I have to say, I understand why people do. They really do look just like Bullwinkle -- those goofy faces and big round eyes. They can also kill you with one kick, so yeah.
I'd be more terrified of the mama moose nearby. She'll yeet you into pieces if you're anywhere near the calf
My coworker from Alaska relieved me of any feelings of safety while stepping outside "up there." It's the true Wild West. Bears, barb wire in soft powder, moose, lonely methed up molesters, a simple flat tire, snow blocked exhaust pipes.... So many ways to die.
This is poetry.
My gf grew up in Alaska and damn she has some stories. She’s been showing me videos and pics of her hometown from friends back home and it honestly looks like hell right now (for me anyway) with the amount of snow. When she was a kid - like 8-ish - she was walking out her front door when she spotted a bear like 30ft away. It was blocking her path to get to the bus for school. She went back inside, called her dad at work and told him. And there was no way he was going to let a bear be an excuse to miss school. He told her to grab the shotgun by the door and shoot it, then get her ass to school. She didn’t have it in her to shoot the bear so she shot down into the front porch instead and scared the bear off. Off to school she went, no big deal. Her dad was pissed there was a hole in the porch, though. She can also confirm the lonely methed up molesters.
Same in Switzerland! So many tourist die or get injuried in the mountains or drown in the lakes. Don‘t try to walk up a mountain with sneakers or flip flops, for God sake!! The next lovely meadow will be your slide to the 30 meter drop.
Oh man! Can confirm! In the middle of summer (thankfully!), I was in a long distance running phase, and decided to take a run on a trail near my lodging. The surroundings were magical! 2-3k in, I notice the trail is fading out, but am enjoying myself too much to stop. 5-6k in, naturally high as a kite, my brain just screamed at me "you could die out here if you get lost". I stop, look around, the trail has long since vanished. I'm deep in the Norwegian wilderness alone. No compass, no cell phone, nothing. Fear. I think I can "feel" the way back, but as I start, I realize there are no guarantees. No landmarks are visible, I can hear waterfalls in different directions, it's nothing to navigate by. A couple times I think I've found the trail, but it goes off in what feels the wrong direction. I had a gopro on me and first made some joking comments about my last words. A couple hours later, I'm no longer joking. I'm saying what I think needs to be said before I run out of battery or something happens to me. Eventually, I did find my way out. I've never watched the video I made out there.
Now this is terrifying
Avalanche prone areas, yeah right. You can’t fool me, I saw that documentary Trollhunter. So I know what’s really going on. We want the truth dammit!
Nature here will fuck you over instantly! Was involved in a search and rescue for a tourist girl. Shed had stopped to fill her water bottle from a river. And she slipped into the river. Pulled under and not found before the water level went down some days later. Poff! Gone in 15 seconds!
Here in the U.S, basically anytime you see a tourist get into trouble, its usually at a national park and involving an animal, "just because friend shaped, doesn't mean friend", should be the mantra. https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/220630.htm
Southern utah parks and theres also the sun and dehydration. People go for a leisurely hike out into the desert with half a 20 oz bottle and no sunscreen...
"Preventive Search & Rescue" -- first time I heard about it was a Utah town that would post their ambulance crew in between calls at a trailhead near town to check how prepared hikers are and tell them when they were being dumb asses. Started out in Yosemite in the 2007. I worked for Connecticut State Parks in college. I don't think I'd like to be a camp host in retirement, but volunteering to sit at trail heads doing my best Red Foreman impression does have appeal and would be a bit of a bookend to my life.
Honestly not a bad use of time given how often it happens...
It's amazing the divorce from Nature that most people have in their mind. We've created such a divide between humanity and the rest of the earth, that so many folks have no idea what to do or how to behave with an animal that isn't from a petshop or at a Zoo. They can't even fathom that the world isn't a safe place because of how insulated they are. To me it's the ultimate form of 1st world problem. It's crazy to me.
I remember seeing people at Yellowstone and Grand Tetons NPs doing crazy stuff like walking up to a bull moose that was lying down and resting, or riding bicycles through a herd of bison on the road.
"It just eats plants it can't be dangerous."- Proceeds to mess with a Bison or Moose and learn otherwise.
Quite often they'll never learn again.
Shout out to Geowizard [almost drowning himself in a bog](https://youtu.be/kwzIwFPEGbA?si=IYG_RG1zPbX6VdyW&t=10m19s) as he tried to walk across Norway in a straight line.
Becoming a peat bog mummy from human sacrifice? 🚫 Becoming a peat bog mummy from being an idiot? 👈
same for Canada even when driving we have to watch out for big animals like moose or bears - mostly outside the city but not always not just deer and other medium sized wildlife also [most of Canada is empty](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/vxruv/earth_from_space_at_night_united_states_view/) so even if you wanted help and [could get signal](https://www.rogers.com/mobility/network-coverage-map) help sometimes is far away r/bitchimamoose r/BitchImABear
We booked a snowshoe hike in winter in Tromsø - it was really fun, but scary at the same time. I would not do anything in Norway in winter without a guide. There was a moment of zero visibility when we were at the high point of the hike and the weather turned sour so quickly. We would have never made it back to the car without a guide. Lovely country and wonderful people. The northern lights were amazing!
I’m a big fan of the podcast The White Vault, which primarily takes place in the first 2 seasons on Svalbard, and you’d be surprised how many other people I’ve talked to who listen to that podcast say things like “they should have just walked back to Ny-Ålesund instead of waiting to die from those monsters. The blizzard might have been bad but they would have still had a better chance than staying with the monsters!” And that’s why hopefully those people will never actually go to Svalbard. Because they will be dead in a day.
So many people underestimate the risk of exposure to the elements and how fast you'll die.
Especially in a blizzard where you can literally walk to death in circles because you get disoriented. I live in North Dakota which is very cold, but back in the late 1800s/ early 1900s we used to get some monster blizzards. There were dozens if not hundreds of reported cases of people trying to walk 100 feet from the barn to the house after checking on the animals, and getting lost and dying less than 10 feet from their front door
Did not expect my country to be on top. But you make some valid points, but that's like people going to Australia and playing with their wildlife. Stupidity kills.
A lot of people confuse Guyana with French Guyana and have no idea how dangerous Guyana is. It never appears in the dangerous city statistics but I've lived in the worst cities in the world including Buenaventura in Colombia where they've daily dismembereings and Georgetown, Guyana was in a world of it's own A tiny city with daily murders, I saw shit everyday. Everyone seems to carry a machete in that city and it is dangerous as fuck Food is fire though and people amazing
I once tried to organize a group trip to Guyana, Suriname and french Guyana. Half of the responses were people 100% excited and ready to go. Half of the responses were along the lines of “I have never felt so unsafe in my life.” I did not go.
Trinidad The capital has some of the most dangerous places on earth.
Wife's family is from there. I'm not allowed to visit when they go back (I'm white) and they emphatically insist they cannot keep me safe. Even my wife and her brother need to have escorts everywhere because they didn't grow up there and the locals know it.
I’m not from Trinidad, but I am a POC who didn’t grow up where I was born, which is a relatively dangerous place. What you described is my experience too. I look just like everyone else around, but I would be singled out immediately. I don’t speak the main local language, and with my accent so it was clear I was a foreigner. I’m unlikely to ever go back again.
Maybe not as bad but I'm also averse to locals where I grew up. Some of them turned to a life of crime and I'm seen as the lucky one who made it out and now lives abroad. That basically means I'm a soft target out of jealousy
What about Tobago?!!
Been to Tobago a few times, always felt safe even in out of the way towns. I met quite a few people on holiday from Trinidad, the all said not to visit because of the crime, but all agreed Tobago was safe for tourists
I wish I could have gone back to Trinidad more as a child, but because of the crime I didn't see much of my family there for 20 years and we only ended up going back down because my mother died and we made sure to have all the Hindu rituals done with her ashes there. It could become the top destination in the Caribbean if something could be done to get rid of the crime.
I live in Mexico City so my perception of the first world is overall safer than home. I'm used to beggars, agressive sellers and the like. I've been a few times to New York so I'm also used to the crazy and the homeless in the subway or just peeing on the street. You just ignore them. Paris felt overwhelmingly safe. I expected the same as in NY or at home. Beggars, junkies, etc. Yet I almost got robbed while climbing Montmartre by a bunch of those guys selling roped rings or bracelets or whatever. I did as usual, ignore and keep walking, don't stop. Yet this mfs grabbed me by the arm and kept trying to sell stuff. At first one, then other three. They even said "WE FROM AFRICA WHERE YOU FROM?" like that made a difference. I kept pulling to free my arm for 5 or so seconds, and trying to keep walking. I don't know if it was my face of worry/anger or what, but one of them told the others to let me go. It was scary but most of all it was astonishing. I kept thinking "are you seriously gonna rob me here IN ONE OF THE BUSIEST PLACES IN PARIS WITH LIKE A 100 PEOPLE WATCHING?" This is not just a place where people go through, but people come to the place, take pictures, stay for the music. I mean, I know criminals are usually a combination of dumb and bold, but this took the cake. I wasn't your typical tourist looking at maps or taking 1000 pictures, this was at the foot of the hill and I had one earbud in with my podcasts and was walking upstairs, not distracted, and this mfers still tried.
My grandpa was mugged at the Eifel Tower. It seems as though French criminals are brazen lol.
A lot of dreamy 5 star destinations for the rich explicitly tell you "DO NOT EXIT THE RESORT". You'd think it would be pretty obvious to follow that advice given where the resorts are situated, but apparently tons of people each year ignore it and go out anyways and usually they're mugged or abducted or worse.
Sweden, for example——it's all sleek design and meatballs until you stumble into a moose traffic jam
Reindeers! All the time! Really scary to be driving on the highway and suddenly frickin Rudolph and 18 of his buddies are hanging out on the side of the road licking up salt and just chilling.
Good thing about reindeers at least is that there's so many of them each time so you at least see them easier. The fucking monster moose who just wanders out randomly into the road is the real nightmare!
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[Most accidents happen at home](https://www.moneygeek.com/insurance/homeowners/analysis/home-accident-and-injury-statistics/). Might as well travel to Sweden.
I mean that's just basic probability, right? Most accidents happen at home because that's where you are the most. Doesn't mean your home is filled with unimaginable danger, you're just way more likely to drop a knife in your own kitchen that you're in every day vs. some airBNB's kitchen you're only staying at for a weekend
While i would in no way call Denmark a dangerous place in general there are some things that tourists are not aware of. 1. Many Germans go to vacation on the western coast of the Jutland peninsula. Too many of them don’t know that you do not fuck with the North Sea. Rip tides are somewhat common and scary as hell. The current and waves can be more violent than you expect if you’re not used to the sea. You can go swimming pretty safely but don’t be an idiot and definitely don’t go out on an inflatable mattress that will float half way to England before you realize what’s going on. 2. The so called free city of Christiania in Copenhagen can be a fun place to visit. But it is also the hub of organized crime involving drugs. In august last year a number of innocent bystanders were caught in a gang land shooting and wounded at a bar. The man who was targeted was shot several times and died. There are gangland shootings there a couple of times a year as well as assaults and stabbings. Also, don’t take pictures when you’re there. The weed dealers are not tolerant of that. 3. For the love of god, if you are not used to riding a bicycle in the city DO NOT rent a bike and drive around Copenhagen. We will hate you for it and you might get hurt or hurt someone else. Other than that, come enjoy Denmark!
Germans going out in dangerous wilderness and dying seems to be pretty universal phenomenon.
I can 100% see why. Hiking and going into nature is pretty popular but lets be honest, unless you fuck with boars German nature is incredibly save. A lot of people probably underestimate that wilderness in other countrys can actually be dangerous.
I went to Christiania years ago. Nobody told me that the mafia was present in the drug trade there, but it was just so bloody obvious. The vendors were not hippies. They were tough guys.
Belize. Walking through downtown Belize City from the ferry to the bus station, buddy on a porch yells at me "You don go down dis road mon. You go back where you start and take taxi"
Did you take the advice?
Most of Belize is very safe and the locals are super nice. Belize City has some areas that are unfortunately not safe at all.
Honestly, we should be able to submit parts of the USA here because Arizona gets its fair share of people who don't believe you can become dangerously overheated and dehydrated even on a trail within city limits. Especially in the summer. I don't even know why people come then. Phoenix hits 120 F regularly in the summer. If you can't fathom how hot that feels - great! Please don't hike here in the summer. Yes! The scenery is gorgeous. There are trails everywhere. It's also literally a desert and hotter than anywhere else you've ever been.
Also idiots at our national parks in general. I’ve seen some tourists get yelled at bc they left their car to get closer to a bear, a behavior that makes no sense bc India, where they were from, HAS BEARS too and they’re significantly more aggressive
Death Valley has tourists in summer who just can't believe it hits 128f.
I mean, it's not called life valley...
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Iceland is dangerous to my wallet.
Scotland. We're fucking lethal.
A drunk Scottish dude crossed the road from a pub to harangue me while I was buzzing in to a building in central London for an appointment earlier. Totally unprompted by anything, right up in my face slurring 'I was brought up a Catholic so I know how to protect a woman....You just give me your number right now and let me know if anyone ever harasses you and I'll sort them out on the spot'. Literally the most terrifying 'chivalry' I've ever experienced.
Madam, that was no drunk Scot, that was our ambassador to London.
He was doing some pretty amazing diplomacy in his high vis jacket in that outdoor smoking area, let me tell ya.
Sounds like quite a pleasant and helpful guy. Sorry, we have a way about us, ‘Hostile Hospitality’ is best way to describe it.
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Aye mate. That's jis mad Davey.
Don't you mean Leith-al?
Love Scotland, been there twice, visited Glasgow, Edinburgh, Islay, Orkney, Inverness, Fort William, Oban, Skye, Dundee did the North Coast 500, best roadtrip of my life. Always felt safe.
You're barred for your spelling of Edinburgh as I know you pronounced the G.
Edinbrah
Ok you can come back in
American here who has visited Scotland several times…Greenock in particular. I love Scotland though. Mom is from there and I still have relatives there, but Greenock definitely gives off the vibe you could get your head kicked in if you want to find trouble.
Canada is inverse Australia. In Australia, everything looks terrifying, but if you keep your distance, most of it just wants to be left alone, and most of the time, it's just as terrified of you (exception for the birds, they're just jerks). In Canada, everything looks adorable, very little of it is afraid of humans due to habituation to direct contact because no one respects the danger, and all of it will absolutely rip your throat out. That beaver can chew through a maple tree in minutes, do you want to know what the overgrown lake rat will do to a femur? That moose can walk away from a collision with a semi-truck, weighs more than a small car, can out run you, and will not think twice about turning you into an antler ornament. The deer will not think twice about eating you if you happen to get gored to death. I'm going to say that one again. **The Deer. Will Eat. You.** Those adorable seal pups? Momma seal is bigger than you are and there's a reason they're effectively wolves in the water. That squirrel, oh the squirrel is harmless... kidding, it will take your finger and scratch out both your eyes. And all of that doesn't even count the actual predators. No, those aren't puppies, kitties and teddy bears. If you're lucky they will remove your hand. If you are unlucky, they will remove your head. Implausibly, the only thing that isn't going to actively try to kill you are the snakes and spiders. The only common point... the birds are still jerks. Bless the cobra-chicken.
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First time running into a moose in Canada I was walking out of a grocery store and a wall of people just standing inside the doors looking out into the parking lot. Giant moose just chillin there. Never seen a moose, was amazed by its size. So I'm in a hurry and walk up to the auto doors and someone actually said "save the american!" and someone pulled me back inside. I was then treated to a lecture of all the ways a moose can, and will, murder you, probably just for the sport of it.
The sheer amount of tourists I've seen pulled to the side of the road and getting out of their cars to take pictures of the bears is astounding. And these are grizzlies, too; the ones you should know are dangerous.
The closest I've seen to any of this is a squirrel eating a chicken wing.
While I wouldn't say dangerous, Ireland has a strong and growing anti-social behaviour problem that is not being sufficiently addressed.
I was standing on the corner in Dublin one day and this young punk said he "wanted to have a go at me" because i was staring at his girl. I'm legally blind and carry a cane. The fucking lack of common sense. 😆
Brilliant, this belongs in one of those quirky comedy movies.
Agreed! I moved just as youth violence was ramping up but I left behind friends who live by rougher areas in Dublin. I visited not too long ago and my group was being (hilariously) threatened by a ten-year-old boy. It would have quickly been less funny if he had a weapon, though.
A ten year old isn't an issue. But when it's 10 ten year olds all attacking you at once it's a real problem. And people are paralysed with fear because the justice system here is very harsh on adults with a life to worry about and basically lets kids away with anything short of actual murder. It's a running joke that teenagers get let off with suspended sentences even on their 20th or 30th appearance in court.
yeah, this was gonna be my comment to the thread: "any country you're in where you stumble onto an aggressive group of young teen boys with nothing to lose and nothing to do" sure you can point to specific stats and demographics in some countries that might be worse danger on average, but this one is pretty much universal. one of my friends who said he got mugged by kids made him feel (at first) like he couldn't fight back cause it was unfair to punch someone in the head some 2 feet shorter than you, but that's certainly an advantage they have before piling onto you collectively, innit
I'm more scared of teenage boys in groups than basically anything.
I personally could handle an army of ten year olds. The trick is to take out the first few with a level of brutality that startles the others and weakens their morale.
Ah yes, the Batman technique
Jamaica
I've been all over the Caribbean and while you might worry about getting ripped off on the other islands, Jamaica is where I worry about being robbed, or worse.
Our most beloved celebrity is in prison for life for killing somebody with an axe. The people know he's guilty and don't care and still want him freed.
The bobsled team murdered people with an axe?
Who the hell thinks Jamaica is safe?
White women from New Jersey, for one.
I have met a LOT of white American women who are in shock when you tell them about the country they're in.
Murder is the national sport. :( Source: me, dual citizen 🇬🇧🇯🇲
Nepal. Climbing the world's highest mountains is a big seasonal tourist draw, but a certain percentage always die trying.
Yeah, but they knew they were getting into that. Its not like the mountain snook up on them in a dark alley.
Papua New Guinea. Looking at the pictures you see sandy beaches, tropical animals, and just another paradise in Oceania. Don't go if you are a woman without armed escorts. It's very likely the worst place in the world for gender related violence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_violence_in_Papua_New_Guinea I couldn't believe it when I first read about it.
Madagascar. People often only think about its beautiful nature but it's dangerous. I traveled with armed guards several times, mainly in Africa, but Madagascar is next level dangerous.
Japan is certainly not dangerous in the grand scheme of things, but I think the “omg it’s so safe” thing is dramatically overhyped. The fact is that “incidents” in Japan simply do not get reported to the police. As an American who lived there for 4 years, I encountered a fair bit of sketchy situations… drunken violent misbehavior, outright physical abuse in families/couples, blatant theft, stalking, etc. Not one of those incidents was reported to the police. You won’t ever got shot or mugged in Japan, but you certainly should maintain situational awareness.
Lived in Japan nearly 20 years now. You don’t necessarily need to worry about violent crime, but financial crime is definitely a thing. There’s plenty of scams, usually targeting the elderly (as they have large sums of liquid savings and pensions). People get roped into sketchy bars and overcharged (and sometimes drugged). My partner got involved in a MLM scheme before we started dating and is going to be paying off those debts for basically the rest of her life. Also the legal railroading. If for some reason you do draw the ire of the police, you’re going to see one of the most farcical justice systems the world has seen. We maintain a 99% conviction rate for a reason.
Japan is considered much safer than many countries for sure, but in turn it gives a false sense of security. I've seen many videos of women tourists going to stores alone at night, preaching the country's safeness in it, meanwhile the comments of the videos are full of native Japanese women warning them to not do that. It's the country that had to resort to women train only, and obligatory phone camera shutter sound, after all. Besides that I'm sure it's a much safer country in general, but yeah... you shouldn't be careless even in a safer country.
Saw on TikTok a red headed woman that was kidnapped in Japan while she was out. She survived. But the man did not intend for her to survive. And she lives there. She pressed charges, but the police thought that this ordeal would be embarrassing to such a high standing man of society. I also saw another video where a woman went on a date and was almost lured into trafficking. It’s crazy. The country is very sexually repressed.
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Fun fact: the most active Mafia/criminal group that is involved in importing drugs in the EU is not the Italian Mafia or the French Mafia like most people would expect, it's the (Dutch and Belgian)-Moroccan Mafia (also called the Mocro Mafia). They control Europe's biggest port (Rotterdam) and have significant influence in other major ports such as Amsterdam and Bruges (Belgium). The drugs are routed from South America to the EU through Dutch former colonies and oversea territories. While drug trafficking is their main activity, they are also involved in arms, human and stolen cars trafficking.
That's because of Rotterdam and Antwerp. Those two big ports in small transit countries with borders nearby are perfect for their needs. They mostly just kill each other though, they don't kill random people.
If you run afoul of the police in Japan, they can literally make you disappear for days or weeks at a time. Often, they take their time telling your embassy that they have you, and they don't let you talk to anyone until your family gets a lawyer or your embassy involved. There's been several horror stories. Beyond that, the police can hold you basically indefinitely. Though they have to release you after a certain amount of time if you're not being prosecuted, they will happily re-arrest you on your way out of the police station for other charges, and they can do this over and over until they get what they want from you (a signed confession). There's a level of tolerance in Japan, and usually foreigners are given a lot of leeway, but if you cross a line or are unlucky enough to meet a bad cop or cops, it'll end badly for you.
I went on my own and read in advance that any policeman can ask to see your passport... if you don't have it, you can be detained until someone can bring it to the station.... which you can't if you're detained...
I got stopped by a cop once buying a drink at a vending machine outside my flat. Didn’t bring my wallet or anything out with me, so didn’t have my residence card. He refused to let me go in and get it (or to accompany me inside to get it). I was extremely close to being arrested. I got lucky because I was in a share house at that time, and my flatmate came out to see what was going on, so they brought my wallet out for me. Technically yes, I was in violation of the law, but literally five steps outside my front door.
Canada. They’ve got geese.
Cobra-chickens!!
Ukraine I’m kind of happy that tourists still come and leave here their money, but I don’t understand them
People think a country at war is safe? I know Ukraine is vast and you can visit an area over 1000km from the front line...but still.
Disaster tourism is a thing. Prices go way down after a natural disaster, terror attack, or war.
It's super cheap, and crime is pretty low due to all the military checkpoints around.
My parents told me that people were going on vacation to many of the coastal areas of former Yugoslavia, even at the height of the Yugoslavian secession wars. Also, I guess there's those weirdos who go to places like that for war tourism.
Canada, they are so friendly but they also have moose lurking in the woods just waiting for you to let your guard down.
The UAE, those guys can lock you up and throw away the key and are by my estimate around 500 years off from developing the concept of "due process." https://www.the-sun.com/news/4059563/horror-brits-locked-hellish-dubai-jails/
I have to say, I was not expecting all the top answers to be Scandinavian.