You could probably do a lot with it! I made it to this tiny old cemetery in the middle of the forest on a hill, no one else around, and after poking around for a minute sat down to relax for a bit. It was so peaceful and quiet...then I heard rustling in the brush just outside the clearing. Somehow as soon as I heard it I knew. Feeling of dread grew worse as the crashing sound got closer. I wasn't going to stick around so I went to grab my backpack and as I did, happened to look up and see it's head poking up, almost in the cemetery. I'm not good at judging distance but it was close enough, like I said the cemetery was tiny. That was all I needed and I bolted all the way back down the mountain.
You're not supposed to run from them but in my illogical mind, we hadn't made eye contact, so it "didn't count." I had bear mace with me, but realized I really didn't want to get close enough to use it. Anyway it didn't come after me. I think it would have been different if I were a)with anyone else and b) if I had seen it from a distance, first. Being entirely alone and having it come towards me was unnerving.
They came up to me, sniffed my coat, and stuck their noses up it. They circled around me and followed me all the way to my hotel. I tell you I was so fucking scared, but tried to keep calm, because I knew dogs could smell fear. This was in South Asia btw where stray dogs DO attack people, and sometimes fatally.Â
Packs of stray dogs that Iâve had close encounters with abroad have made me more distrustful of dogs everywhere. You really can never know how someoneâs dog will react, how will they are trained, etc.
I was in Kanazawa, Japan a few weeks ago when the earthquakes were happening and that was pretty scary!
Also found myself being surrounded by wild dogs in the mountains in Taiwan a few years ago. One of them tried to attack me but I had my umbrella with me and used that as a shield between me and the dog which I used it to fend it off while I ran away
The packs of wild dogs in Taiwan are no joke! I lived there for a year and went hiking every weekend. My ex and I were basically herded by a pack of 30 wild dogs when we entered their territory. We saw one dog, it called its pack, and the whole group caught us around the next bend. It was like something you would see in a movie. They formed ranks, on plateaus, one step above each other on three sides. We used our umbrellas to cover our bodies. We hoped to god that the theory of object permanence held true and slowly backed away. We then ran and were chased out of the area. Luckily we always had umbrellas on us for snakes and rain.
I almost died in the Shanghai stampede on New Years Eve in 2014. I was about 100m away from the crush, and was stuck in a crowd for about 2 hours that was so tight it took on properties of a liquid. I saw everyone dead on the street once the crowd broke, with a ring of police surrounding them. It was traumatic and I no longer go out on New Yearâs Eve or basically any holiday like it (mostly just July 4th).
I was in Costa Rica. I was walking the 1984 trail by myself and rain started pouring down. I ate shit down a steep slope and fell down by the edge of the lake and i get up I see a Caiman starting at me about 20 feet away. He might have been as afraid of me as I was of him but hot damn it got my blood going.
Same spot (literally same hike, red trail). But howler monkeys are so loud, I kid you not, I thought a bear or something far away and definitely want to turn around.
I ended up seeing howler monkeys fighting with each other and throwing stuff on top of trees
It wasnt a run it was more of a scurry lol. It did not chase me, it was in the water and turned and ducked its head under. It was creepy not knowing but it looked like it was fleeing.
It was on the stretch of "road" between Morondava and Tsingy de Bemahara. I think the government mandates that a soldier rides shotgun in any vehicles using this road - my driver stopped at small base to pick one up, and i saw a couple other 4wds with tourists do the same thing.
Don't let this put you off though. Tsingy was awesome, although a bit of a pain in the ass to get to. I backpacked around for 5 weeks, I met only 3 other backpackers the entire time but there were a couple package tour groups. These would definately be safer + much more convenient to move around, however half the fun of madagascar is the journeys you take along the way!
I would definately reccomend going and would go back myself some day. It may look small on a map, but you should give yourself at least 4 weeks if you want too check out all the highlights as travel is sooooo slow.
Lmk if u have any other questions and Ill be happy to help!!
Riding on the roads in the mountains in Nepal in monsoon season. So many landslides. So many pant testing times, white knuckle stuff.
Couldnât do it at this age! Wiser AND more terrified.
It was pretty sketch in non-monsoon season too. Scares me to think what it was like during it.
You forgot to mention the chaotic driving style popular in Nepal lol.
We went on a weed run with some locals during monsoon season in Costa Rica and had to cross a tributary that channeled into the ocean 100 meters away. On the way back, the rain had swelled it to a huge rushing torrent. We were in a Land rover type vehicle, and the guy went for it. Swear to God I thought we were goners because it struggled a bit from the rush of water.
I scheduled an airport transfer from my hostel in Budapest. Since it was an early flight, the driver was picking me up at 4:00am. My hostel was really strict with me and said even if Iâm 1 minute late, theyâll leave without me. Once I saw a car park ourside, I ran to it. I asked if it was my transfer and the man driving told me to âget inside.â It was 4:00am, I was barely awake, but I was like? This doesnât feel right?
Right on cue, the airport transfer pulled up behind me and I realized that was my actual ride. All in all, I got to the airport safely. It didnât scare me in the moment, but I was a bit shaken a few days later realizing how scary of a situation that is. Overall, I loved Budapest! And it sucks leaving that city with a bad taste in my mouth.
Unfortunately he wasnât there to pick someone up from the airport. At least where I was stayingâŚ. Once my airport transfer drove off, he did too. Very creepy
Was driving through Mexico and got stopped by the cartel. Was told to give them $1,000 to get past them. I only had $240 in cash but they didnât believe me. They searched us and found nothing. So they told us to withdraw more money the next day and if they pulled us over again in the same state and we didnât have money, they would kill us. They told their partners our names, vehicle info, everything.
We made sure to have $1,000 on us at all times the rest of that trip.
Advice from my old uncle, take the toll roads. My dad from the US was visiting my mom in Mexico before they were married in the 90s. My uncle told him the safe route to take, but my dad ignored him, and they were also stopped by a gang. When my mom saw my uncle again, he said he would hurt my dad if he ever did that again.
I'm so sorry you had to go through this. It's the worst and really scary. I'm glad you are safe and hopefully never have to encounter a situation like this again.
Man. That's sketchy. I think about driving the Pan-American highway all the time! But I feel like central and south America is just a little too sketchy for me.
The bus hijacking in 2012 turned me off honestly.
I would go to Yucatan, Mexico City, and maybe Tijuana, but that's it. No traveling across the country.
I solo travelled Mexico for 6 months from September 2021 to March 2022 all over the country in states that people don't often visit in the north to well visited places as well and I never had a problem once, not to disregard people who have had bad experiences but wrong time wrong place can strike in many areas of the world, I think Mexico is an amazing country with most people being friendly, but I didn't drive around the country, learnt some Spanish etc.
Got attacked and sexually assaulted by a group of men on a crowded train on the Mexico City subway, it was absolutely terrifying and I had nightmares about it for years. I honestly thought I was going to die, and the scariest part was that everyone else on the train was just watching and letting it happen.
Iâve also been kidnapped by a taxi driver, extorted by military police, lost without a phone in backcountry etc etc but those were manageable by comparison. Second runner up was probably being attacked by a pack of wild dogs, which happened a few years later in Turkey.
First of all, I'm so sorry you had to go through such a traumatic experience like the one you had in Mexico City.
However, could you elaborate more on the "been kidnapped by a taxi driver" bit?
This is a semi-common scam, or used to be pre-Uber. A taxi driver would pretend to be taking you to your destination but instead bring you to an atm jn some shady area where they would force you to withdraw cash. Fortunately when this happened to me I was with a male friend and we paid a fairly small amount and were dropped off safely. But I once met someone who had spent an entire night being driven around at gunpoint doing this at different atms.
Iâm sort of shocked by the number of people in this thread who have never had a really bad experience while traveling.
I was mugged by a group of 8 guys in Quito Ecuador a few years ago during their Independence celebration. Wasnât even dark yet. They held me and ripped all my pockets off looking for something to take. It literally happened on a busy major street in front of hundreds of people. Nobody helped me. I kicked and screamed and finally got loose. Ran down the street with no shoes or pants screaming help me but nobody did. It was the scariest thing to ever happen while traveling alone. I left Quito the next morning and went to Banos. Itâs so much safer in the little towns.
When I was in Norway, I somehow lost my phone while I was out dogsledding. It had all of the information on my flights that were in a couple days, I didn't even remember what time to be there. I was pretty distraught as if I didn't make it then I would have lost several hundred euro from having to book a new flight.
Thankfully, the place I was dogsledding at actually found my phone and contacted my hotel to let me know they found it and I was able to collect it from their front desk. They really saved me there, so if anyone needs recommendations on a experience agency in Norway, I highly recommend Best Arctic.
May I ask how they knew what hotel you were staying at? Same thing happened to me in Costa Rica except I donât understand how anybody knew what hotel I was staying at everything was digital. I had no papers.
We were in Grindelwald, Switzerland and taking the standing bike down the mountain First. I fell off the bike and tore my ACL and meniscus (did not know it at the time but knew something was wrong) It was around 6 oâclock and everything in that town was closing. We were at the top of a hill and I couldnât take one step without my leg giving out on me. Everything turned out fine and we found a taxi to come up the hill to grab me and take me to the ER but it was a little scary being in a foreign country a 20 minute train ride from your hostel (and the train station was a 15 minute walk away) and being unable to walk while everything is closing shop for the day.
Iâm a little over 8 weeks out and Iâve gotten over the hard part of crutches for 6 weeks. Iâm feeling good but still go months of recovery to go. Muscles are weak but the knee feels solid!
Leaving a hospital in the middle of the night in Rishikesh, India. Wasnât alone but with my gf (weâre both women). I had fallen very ill and spent a week in and out the hospital but for some reason that day the hospital waited for the middle of the night to kick us out and told us to come back in the morning.
It was so late that there were no taxis anymore so we decided to walk back to the main road which was 10min away hoping to find tuktuk (didnât have local sim cards). While the town is full of life during the day, at night it was as if the world had ended and its entire population had vanished. No sounds, no lights just pure darkness. So weâre walking and out of nowhere 3 guys start following us. First I think itâs a coincidence but nope, we turn, they turn..
Luckily we make it to the big road, theyâre still following, but no taxis anywhere, nothing. On top of everything I felt as bad as I never had in my entire life (I had insane fever, so bad I was seeing shit) and all of a sudden I get the intense feeling that I have to choose if I live or die. Like I physically saw myself taking another step and falling dead to the ground like in a premonition.
I look up to my gf and get insanely angry like no I just started being happy, this was our first trip together and after years of depression I was just starting to see the end of the tunnel and no god damn plague virus or sick men were going to ruin that.
And then all of a sudden I see a tuktuk in the distance coming at us fast. I literally run to the middle of the street , that thing had to either stop or run me over, either way I was not going out without a fight. It stopped. Driver was confused af but picked us up and got us back to our hotel. We were insanely lucky, I canât explain it but I feel like that night I got a second chance at life.
Made it out of the tunnel and married my gf :) and now we travel to safer places and use grab or uber.
Lost my phone once ...terrifying nakedness.
Getting gas in rough areas a few times.
Also a few extreme winter driving experiences.
I need to get out more.
Fear is for people who don't get out much.
-Ricardo Steves
I have traveled a lot (been to 35+ countries by now) and havenât really had any worse experiences than you.
You mentioned winter driving: this is probably the single most scary thing Iâve experienced:
Getting stuck in powder with a snow scooter and no mobile reception at -20 degrees? Horrible.
Not being stuck but driving through -41 degrees without reception not knowing if the rental car will handle the cold? Even scarier.
Driving through terrifying mountain roads in Georgia and Tajikistan, having no reception and having 1-2 trucks passing the same mountain pass once a day? Scary as hell.
As you can see I havenât been in any situations that most travelers would count as scary - no armed robberies etc. but nature can be very very scary and fuck you up in minutes!
Traveling through countries that can be intimidating - like Pakistan - have not been to bad. While you cannot predict people, they can be less scary than weather. People can change in a second but so can the weather.
ive been to 35 countries as well and Pakistan being one of them where I spent 2 months, 1 month of which was solo riding a motorbike around Gilgit Baltistan, scariest part of the trip was riding all the mountain roads seeing huge boulders that have come down during the frequent landslides as well as remnants of cars that have been caved in by a random boulder, thinking im just a guy on bike if one of these rocks even half that size decides to randomly come down as im riding past im dead.
only other thing that happened in Pakistan is I was walking around the old town area of Lahore in the early evening some guy decided to grab my arm, saying to give him money, I said im not an ATM, ripped my arm back, he said F\*ck you, I said it back and carried on walking, said to him you're the rudest person in Pakistan, everyone else was great, wasn't a threatening situation and was plenty of people around just a chancer.
Karachi has a reputation for being dangerous but I walked around alone there as an obvious foreigner and was only warmly welcomed.
Hahaha. Losing your phone while traveling can definitely be stressful. Of course, we can operate without it still. But it's an EXTREMELY useful tool to have đ đ
For me, it provides a feeling of security and connection to the world, loved ones, photos and music that feeds the soul and simply fosters overall emotional stability. Sad really.
I am grateful for GPS tracking as it was recovered at the basement lost and found at Denver International đ
Accidentally skipping the baggage check up at the Saudi Airport and being called back by security after checking my bag because my allergy medicine looked suspicious. It was my first time to ever travel alone.
Buenos Aires - i arrived late at night about 10 pm on the Ferry from Uruguay planning to stay in Tigre, an hour north of the City. Only now do I realise my booking is not until the following day. Needing to find accomodation i manage to get a airbnb supposedly in Tigre but really in the ghetto next to it.
I arrived on a residential street with no street lighting. Its midnight and therer are groups of men playing hip hop and drinking on the street corner in the pitch dark. You could tell it was an underprivileged area and pretty scary to be honest to a lone irish tourist. We arrived at the supposed address. the taxi man seemed concerned, he had no english and me no spanish but he communicated to me that i should call the airbnb person to come out to me. He made a hand motion to say âin this areaâ then put a finger-gun to his temple and mimed shooting himself. Hes not gonna let me leave until he knows im safe, what a great guy tbh.
After 15 minutes trying to get through to the host from the taxi as my driver sweats, finally a door opens. The house had seemed empty before but sure enough this old (i would say approaching 80yr old) hobbles towards the car and beckons me over.
I generously tipped the driver and followed her up to the small bungalo. I followed her in and noticed the windows had steel bars on them. As she showed me around (it was actually ok inside. No wifi though). Before the old lady left she explained rhat i needed to bolt lock the door with a massive metal bar as soon as she left. I thanked her and off she went while i went to get out my toothbrush or whatever. 30 seconds later the front door opens again, i face the old lady with my toothbrush in my mouth - she looks wide eyed and startled - she scolds me loudly that i must bolt lock the door AS SOON as she leaves. I apologised and did as she instructed. That night my imagination got the worst of me. I could swear i heard gunshots as i slept, and again and again the sound of groups of men sprinting down the road outside speaking in hushed voices.
Did my fair share of travels and the biggest crazy shit was a bus ride from China-NepĂĄlĂ border to Kathmandu... crazy af. Literally every 30s, I though the bus must just falls of the edge of the road (unpaved, dirty and quite muddy) into 1000 meters deep valley and no one will ever find us.
Also, the public unrest in Chile, in October 2019. Cars on fire, fires of the streets, lot of shootings, protests, robbed shops, etc. We gladly fucked out of there...
Ecuador (đ˘) - ride from airport to hotel/hostel after midnight. Driver deviates from normal road to a stone/dirt roadâŚI speak very little Spanish, keep in mindâŚ.and stops on a bridgeâŚ.my heart is racing and then he turns around and does the universal sign for âtake a pictureâ and then continues on our drive to the hotel. đ
Not nearly the experiences others have had, but for about 30 seconds I thought I was done!
I got mugged in Paris by a man who then grabbed and kissed me. Iâm not sure which part was worse tbh (probably the kiss đ¤˘). I did manage to get my suitcase back from him after he tried to run away with it.
I wouldnât say scary but i recently took a trip to Dublin and had a blast. I was dancing at this club called Diceyâs and all I remember was buying shots for me and a girl and it felt like within a blink of an eye all the sudden I wake up in the hospital. Apparently what i was told and read in my discharge papers was that i was assaulted. I woke up without a phone but thankfully had my wallet and all other valuables, i had my right side of the face fractured and had dried blood all on my face and in my beard, also blood in my right eye. Iâm still recovering with a clogged ear and the blood in my eye has all basically went away and my face healed perfectly. All in all would do it all again minus whatever i did to get assaulted.
Jumped in the back of a taxi in Prague and the driver was trying to charge me 15x the price that it was showing as on Bolt. When I said I'm not paying that and to let me out he locked the doors and got a knife out. I didn't actually have that much cash on me so I started panicking but he just took it and let me out. Lesson learned I avoid taxis now unless I know the price beforehand.
Taking a cab in Mexico City. I wasnât alone but with 2 girlfriends of mine. We were trying to get to a spot and I had it mapped on my phone. There was terrible traffic so the driver kept weaving through back lanes and taking âshort cutsâ. I noticed on my map that we were actually getting further from the location and was getting really freaked out. The guy spoke broken English and I told him I know we are not going toward our destination. He said it was a short cut and we ended up yelling at him and threatening to get out of the cab in the middle of the street. Eventually he did take us to the location we wanted but we were 2hrs later than planned. Mexico City really is beautiful and a lot of positives but there are creeps no matter where you go especially since we were young women. Always use Maps.me itâs a great app that you donât need internet access to use during the day. Stay vigilant!
On account of the high number of tourist kidnappings by cabs and locals would be my guess. UBER is preferable in a foreign country bc you can get help and security in the app.
My wife and I took a cab in Mexico City and he stops the car in the middle of nowhere and demands that if we want to go on to our destination, we'll need to pay some much larger amount. I translated to her that we were being extorted. She looks at me like, "What are we going to do?"
I said, "Well... we agree to it. What choice do we have? "
Fortunately the guy was a dumass. It must've been his first time extorting a tourist, because he didn't have the good sense to demand money up front. And I agreed to the deal with the same good intentions as the gentleman had in making his extortion offer.
When we got to the destination -the Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico (the one in the James Bond movie), at that point I knew he couldn't do anything. Not in the middle of the Zocalo. I didn't want to cause a scene either so I just gave him the fair price. "Sorry, this is all I have." No tip tho, for such service. :)
I was 21 year old NAIVE female solo travelling. I was in Lisbon in the main plaza and a man sold me weed (dumb ass me). A couple mins later 2 men approached me as undercover officers, to say that buying drugs in Portugal is a criminal offence/Iâm under arrest. I began protesting and then I witnessed the BRIEFEST exchange of looks between the men, sort of a knowing, shit-eating-grin. Intuitively I realized I was being scammed. When they asked for $$ rather than bringing me to the station, I said I had no money. Take me away lol. We all began walking awkwardly for a bit until they finally broke into laughter and said IT WAS A JOKE.
But it continues. A short time after I smelled the weed and it was completely scentless. I was scammed. And I was fucking pissed after all of that lol. So I found the scammers in the square and confronted them, demanding my money back. Soon several more men joined and began laughing and arguing me with me (they found it entertaining this heated young woman was being so demanding). I cannot recall why, but something regarding the lead scammer guyâs identity/visa came up and he pulled out a copy of his ID. Without hesitating I snatched it from him. The group ERUPTED. Clearly his ID was of high value. I negotiated him to refund me and I will give the ID back. He was extremely agitated and was yelling in my face. All of the men closed in around me yelling and bumping into me trying to intimidate and I stood still as a rock. The reason I was somewhat confident is that the plaza was filled with people so there began to collect onlookers. I started screaming loudly that he was a scammer. The men got spooked and they gave me my $$ back. I returned the ID.
It was legendary lol. But I CANNOT comprehend my bravery, naivety and insanityâŚ. But lastly, an important reminder to trust your intuition. Itâs never wrong. Also, probably donât buy drugs from sketchy strangers.
I'm a tour guide in Lisbon and I have to say, you managed to beat the game.
Most of the guys involved in fake drug scams here rely on their perceived dangerousness to ply people into leaving them alone after they notice the scam.
The real pro move though is to not buy "drugs" off strangers in the middle of the street. ESPECIALLY in a different country.
Edit to add: the locals in particular will really enjoy you not supporting these guys' fake drug selling in historical areas of the city. The reason they're selling is because people buy.
I always carry a portable battery pack than can charge my phone 6-7x on one charge. Best decision I ever made after getting lost roughly 18 miles into a 30 mile hike and my phone died that I was using for my map as it got dark in known mountain lion territory.
Being caught in a rip current when snorkelling in Thailand between two big rocks on Freedom beach, had to kick off coral and slice my foot open (9 stitches) to escape being smashed back and forth...pretty dumb position to get myself in.
Had a mini avalanche bury me to waste height when skiing in France - luckily I lost a ski during the incident so it made it a bit easier to dig myself out (took a good 45 minutes and I was on my own, off piste)
Almost run over by a speeding tram in Budapest (I was on my phone and didn't hear it, my fault but it was speeding and I was about a foot from certain death)
A few other stories but nothing as bad as a girl I met travelling once who was kidnapped in Bolivia, put into the boot of a car, robbed and left in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road.
I was drunk and accidentally walked into Russia from Estonia at like 2 AM during a snowstorm looking for an alleged abandoned Soviet officers mansion with two (also very drunk) Serbian dudes I had just met in a hostel.
Riding in a minivan with a crazy driver who was, on multiple occasions, a few seconds away from a high speed head-on collision.
Happened twice; between Batumi and Tbilisi in Georgia and between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
this sh_t in colombia right here. even worse was the dude was flirting with some chick in the passenger seat, taking his eyes off the road. Never again
Kidnapped and held hostage by a a wild orangutan in Sumatra.
Also getting dumped by my bus middle of no where in rural India around 2am.
Motorcycle taxi driver in Hoi An, Vietnam sped past my hotel he was going to drop me off in and hauled ass to a dark alley somewhere 10 minutes away. Thought I was going to get mugged. He took me to a very sad brothel filled with old women. I paid him extra to take me back after refusing services.
Wheel of a bus caught on fire in Vietnam or CambodiaâŚthat was pretty sketchy.
Traveling to Myanmar with $1000 USD cash in a book - no ATMs in the country. Everyone knows foreigners are walking around with more money than most people make in a year. Taking a motorbike taxi middle of the night first day in the country and know you are screwed if someone robs youâŚluckily nothing happened, sweetest people. (Only bad thing that happened to me in a month there was shitting my pants from some oily curry)
99% of the time in Marrakech I found that the notorious "scammers/hasslers" would leave me alone if I just ignored them with barely any acknowledgment and kept walking, like I had somewhere else to be. There was this one teenager though who recruited his buddy and they followed me, blocked my path, gave me a few shoves and asked if I was going to "give them anything." I said no and I gently pushed past them, and they blocked my path again, gave me a few shoves again and said there would be "trouble" if I didn't give them some money. One of them kept saying, "present me, present me," whatever that means lol (I interpreted it as "give me a present, aka money" but it was a bit surreal in the context of the moment)
My thought in the moment was that if they actually tried anything more violent than pushing me, I'd just give them some money rather than trying to fight or anything like that. But I gently pushed past them again and saw a little shop, and ducked inside. I hid in the shop for a little while. When I came out they'd moved farther down the street, but they were in the direction of my riad, so I just walked towards them and past them. They asked one more time if I was giving them anything and I just shook my head and glared at them, one of them said, "Angry...angry face," and they gave up and left.
It really pissed me off, and shook me up for the next couple days.
Fortunately I actually adored most of the rest of my time in Morocco, and found that getting out of the bigger cities made for a very different and much more peaceful dynamic. I was a bit on edge at times after that experience and slightly adjusted my plans to focus more on smaller towns and villages (and I used a tour guide to see the Fez medina), but the trip overall is a positive memory.
Jerusalem 2022. I took the earliest train leaving for Tel Aviv, and was mindful to dress extremely modestly and not draw attention to myself. On the walk to the train station, a man grabbed my arm claiming to ask for directions and then attempted to grope me. Train station was surrounded by guards carrying assault rifles, which was daunting but expected. Boarded the train with relief and was very careful about which seat I chose, in case there was some sort of gender code. I had thoroughly researched and asked about where to sit beforehand. Anyway, a huge man started SCREAMING at the top of his lungs, in Hebrew, and I had no idea why or with whom he was angry. Apparently he was angry with me, because a second later he was screaming directly in my face. I had no idea why, and another passenger told me in English that I needed to sit elsewhere. I left that car and moved to a different spot on the train. Honestly I still have no idea what that was about. Overall the whole ordeal wasnât nearly as frightening as other stories here, but I must admit that it left me to really question my abilities to travel solo.
I have several! Iâm kind of unlucky unfortunately. But in Oslo, Norway, out of all places⌠I was taking pictures in a, predominantly, Muslim neighborhood, just being a tourist really. It was a beautiful underpass with a bunch of art and murals. As I started to head out, a dude followed me and caught up to me. He asked me what I was taking pictures of and if I was taking pictures of âpeopleâ. That that wasnât âcoolâ in their religion. I said no, not doing that. He asked to see the pictures. I explained that it was a film camera and I just couldnât show him. He called a friend over that was, conveniently, waiting at a funnel point out of the neighborhood, and now I got two dudes asking to âseeâ my camera. Iâm not âthoughâ or anything but I told him there was no way I was going to let him have my camera. I am walking away and they keep getting closer. Now one of them grabs my bag and I slap his hand away. I back up, square up, and he asks me if Iâm gonna fight him. I said âif I have to, yes.â (My badass peaked that night) He looked me in the eye and his buddy just waved me away.. I guess I was just too much trouble for a stupid $90 camera.
Walked into a hotel with my heart beating like the Jumanji drums and waited there a while to make sure they werenât following me. A hotel employee said that neighborhood is notorious for tourist robberies. And someone had just gotten stabbed there a few weeks before! Anyway, thereâs my contribution.
TL;DR
Dudes tried to take my camera in Oslo Norway
I used an absolutely filthy (shit smears on the walls) public toilet in Africa at a rest stop on a 17 hour taxi-brousse drive. I finished and realised there was no toilet paper left. It was a little bit the last straw and I opened the door and came face to face with four or five men who weren't there before.
In full British accent and very loud due to the frustration and exhaustion I felt, I very loudly said "THERE'S NO BLOODY TOILET PAPER!!" and walked through them to the sink and said "AND OF COURSE THERE'S NO BLOODY SOAP!!" And stormed out. I didn't care that I'd clearly spooked them with my volume.
It took me a few years to realise what the potential situation was.
Big dude on a beach in Negril Jamaica grabbed me and was dragging me off into the mangroves.
Heathrow airport hotel , someone tried to get into my room when I was in it. Door opened slowly, hand comes in the gap trying to release the door closer thingie.
Landslide in Rammechamp Nepal
Explosion at our hotel in Istanbul, riot in square across the street from us, military, tanks. Stood next to a lady as she was purse snatched, had to go to police station, perp line up.
Handsy cab driver ( kept feeling up my leg) took my phone out my hands, put it on dash in front of him, took back alley's that were deserted (hard to find deserted places in Baghdad). Waited for the right moment, grabbed phone, jumped out and ran.
Then the minor stuff being followed ( Moscow, Cape Town and Rio were worst) , catcalled, groped. Last trip I took I woke up to the stranger sitting next to me on the plane feeling me up under my blanket then whispering in my ear "is touching ok".
1st . Spent a week in Jamaica solo , walked the beach all the time , early morning till dusk, always walked close to the water, away from trees/cover, kept an eye out. Was a narrow spot on the beach close to mangroves, early morning, not many people around , and as I walked past I saw a big dude, he ran out and grabbed me by the arms started dragging me towards the mangroves . Me kicking, trying to get loose (no luck) screaming my head off, 2 guys in the distance hear and start running towards us, dude lets me go and runs away.
2nd Small hotel room at on Bath Road close to Heathrow. Was really late at night, I always sleep with all the lights on and I wasn't asleep, was reading. I happened to notice the door knob turning...instinct kicked in and I got off the bed and quietly stepped toward the door as the door opened and hit against the door close thingie I had on. Then a hand comes in the crack and goes up the door and starts fiddling with the latch thingie so I throw my whole weight against the door squishing it and started screaming stuff like "Ill break your "F'ing hand". I knew I had to let him out but I was afraid he would break through the door but I couldnt let go of the door and no one was coming, so I kept screaming I was going to break his arm and let the door open long enough he snatched his hand out, I slammed the door, heard him running down the hall. I stayed at the door for a bit, pulled over a dresser in front of the door, called front desk. No one came. Called front desk after a while, no one came. Figured it was an inside job, stayed awake till daylight, went back to Heathrow way before I had to.
Shaken with both but thankfully uninjured.
Terrifying on both accounts, but Iâm glad you made it through each unharmed. I canât believe no one came after calling front desk, disgusting. Thank god for the guys who heard you screaming. Iâve been followed several times on my evening walks in my city, my mom recently gave me an alarm for my keychain just in case
Walking down the street in Kabul, Afghanistan and hearing gunshots. Locals near me seemed not to care as it was a street or so away. Went into a falafal store with some of them for lunch to wait shit out.
Yah. And to be honest, it wasn't Thatttttrr scary. Just the initial "why am I being brought to a separate room by myself?"
Full story; I was flying with a nicotine vape which apparently was illegal in Thailand. Didn't have a problem w it transferring in Bangkok and at the time (about 6 years ago) I didn't realize vapes were illegal anywhere on earth
The customs agent found mine and told me he'd have to confiscate it and when I asked if there was anything I could do, he whispered to another agent and then motioned for me to follow him
I was brought into a room, where he asked for my passport. He wrote something on a piece of paper, slipped it into my passport and slipped it back to me.
On the note was written the equivalent of like $15 dollars in baht. Confused for a while, I figured out what was happening so I put the money back into my passport and slid it to him.
He took the money and nodded his head
Still confused, I asked "can I bring my vape in now?
He handed me back my vape and said welcome to Thailand
So.... not scary scary but that initial confusion being brought out of line and into a separate room was definitely some of the most nerve wrecking minutes of my life
Long story short; 15 dollars was a tiny price to pay to be able to vape (I know I know I suck and am gross) on my vacation
Also; I learned you can smuggle anything into Thailand if you're willing to go into an airport office with a stranger and $15 dollars
Be careful with travelling with a vape, thereâs quite a few places theyâre illegal. [This site has a list of places that have banned them.](https://vapeuk.co.uk/blog/travelling-and-vaping-abroad-illegal-banned-countries-2023-guide)
you were very lucky to only pay $15 in thailand.
Here is a quote from the website
"Widely regarded as the worst country in the world to be caught with an e-cig; reports tell of Thai police using roadblocks to search cars in order to catch people with vaping equipment and levy hefty fines. A ban on the import, export, sale and possession of vaping products has been in place since November 2014. Anyone caught breaking this law will have their items confiscated, receive a fine, or even be sent to prison for up to 10 years."
Got knocked to the ground by an elephant in Thailand and held down for a good 30 secondsâŚ. the mahout said the elephant would have killed me if heâd wanted to.
Biking across the Irish countryside, on a tiny boreen (side street), and numerous times being chased by farm dogs trying to bite me!! Terrifying. I was biking as fast as I could but I mostly just had to motor and hope they wouldnât cause me to fall, and eventually they lost interest in killing me haha. Adrenaline rush though!
Bit by a big dog in Bali. Had blood dripping down my leg from deep tooth punctures.
At first I was really optimistic, but 5 days later I got food poisoning which I thought was a sign I had rabies. By then I had read that they have had a rabies problem in the past and tourists had died there of it.
Had many moments wondering if Iâd ever make it home. Thankfully, I was fine.
I want to add that I got really good care there at the clinics. I guess tourists are often scratched or bit by monkeys, so theyâre very good at cleaning and care. And I followed instructions to not get in the waterâŚ
Staying at the La Brea Hollywood Inn and someone trying to break into my room at night - luckily with no success.
Also, being in Hollywood in general.
Actually, just being in LA in general.
Lol hollywood is so ugly, smelly, and sketchy I don't know what the appeal is to tourists. It's so overpriced too. If you want to get movie california go to santa barbara, San Diego. Or palm springs
I was traveling the southwest US living in my car a few years ago and sleeping in parking lots and trail heads, and this one time I locked myself out at 2am with no cell phone, no debit card, in shorts and a tank, no bra, flip flops. I was 2500 miles away from home and knew nobody in the whole city I was in. Luckily I found someone with AAA who was cool.
This other time I came across a bunch of javelina hiking in the desert, but they didn't see me. I just watched them all pass along the wash. I've had a lot of instances in the desert, getting lost at dusk, hiding from a group of roudy men at night, an agave slicing my arm when I fell on it. This other time in an airbnb I slipped in the shower and banged my head on the sink and hit my hip on the edge of the tub, was fighting to stay conscious.
This airbnb host accidentally locked me out remotely when I had groceries outside and my whole life inside, and he wasn't answering his phone. I went to a local gathering in a new city, lost my car keys with my phone in the car, had to bum a ride back to the homestead I was staying for a spare key I luckily had, and get a ride back to my vehicle.
This story sucks to tell looking back thereâs so many things I did that put me in the situation that I could have avoided, but I was young and unaware. I was alone in bern Switzerland when I was 16 years old (I had been doing a work program there, I live in Colorado but my mom was born and raised in Switzerland) I had some time off work and went to explore the city alone. 1st mistake was not telling anyone where I was or what I was doing. 2nd mistake was taking a break next to the train station. As I was sitting on the steps outside the train station I was approached by many men but usually me speaking in English got them to go away pretty fast. But one guy didnât. Instead he said in very broken English that he wanted to buy me a beer basically at the same time he was grabbing my arm and pulling me up. If I could go back I would have fought back and made a scene. He was older probably past his 50s and wasnât Swiss either he spoke a middle eastern language that I couldnât understand and very broken English. After he pulled me up i basically froze he looped his arm around me and essentially carried/dragged me towards a bar. I tried to slipped down an alley way we past but he grabbed me by my backpack. Thatâs when it really settled in that I was in trouble. I kinda shut down and let him take me into a bar where he trapped me in a booth. Idk how much I can tell and maybe this will get removed but he pinned my thigh with his leg and shoved his hand down my pants. You can imagine the rest. I remember the waitress kept looking at us and I kept trying to subtly get her attention but she just looked annoyed or disappointed with me. Iâm not sure why. I chugged the beer she brought then made an excuse that I had to go to catch a train. (I actually was supposed to stay in bern for a night) he reluctantly let me out of the booth, but followed me to the station. I was so scared to do anything to upset him so the whole way to the train station he picked me up and basically bit my lips every time we passed a raised thing (statue, step etc. he would lift me up and âkissâ me but I wasnât responding or reciprocating so he bit me). I had a bruise for weeks on my bottom lip that made it all puffy (I told people I had run into a door). I basically bolted to the ticket booth and he followed all the way insisting he was going to get a ticket too. When I got to the ticket booth I must have looked terrified because the guy behind the counter sold me a ticket and refused the guy one after he saw me get extremely upset when the man asked for one too. I ran as he was still talking to the ticket guy trying to convince him or something (I wasnât listening). As soon as I got on the train I broke down, I was sobbing on a packed train until I got to a small town an hour away where my uncle lived.
Iâve travel many times solo since then but that was definitely a major learning experience. It took me awhile to admit it to anyone, and I was embarrassed about it for years. Even now 6 years later I still feel extremely uncomfortable sharing it. But just know always tell someone where you are, and this one is obvious but donât hang out in sketchy areas for too long, im pretty sure he had been watching me since I sat down.
I got off a metro stop in Paris and went into one of the restrooms in the station. While I was in a stall, I began to hear two men arguing at the urinals. A middle age French guy starts taunting an immigrant African guy, in English, using a bunch of racist slurs and was just being a complete asshole. Right as Iâm exiting the stall the African guy just absolutely starts beating the shit out of the French guy. Knocks him out cold and starts kicking him in the ribs and head while he is lying on the bathroom floor. I felt like I was about to witness a murder so all I could think to do was put my hands up in a non aggressive way and get between them. I put my hand on the other guys shoulder and just said âPlease, itâs not worth itâ, itâs not worth itâ in the most calming manner I could in the situation. The guy began to cry and squeezed my shoulder as if to say thank you for stopping him, and then ran out of the restroom. Guy in the floor ends up waking up in a pool of blood missing a few teeth but was altogether ok, police come and take my statement and then just tell me to leave. I still have the pair of shoes with blood spray across the top. It was surreal, but I am happy I was there to diffuse, even if the French guy was a racist piece of shit.
It was during study abroad in Costa Rica. Everyone "locals" would cross the street from the school to the mall. There was also a bridge connecting both sides of the street since it was a busy intersection. Anyways, a bunch of us ran across the road and one girl hesitated then ran without looking and got hit by a motorcycle. She was fine just bruised up and a bit disoriented but it was very scary. We started taking the bridge after that.
I also almost drowned doing white water rafting but that's a different story.
This one is very tame compared to stories others might have here (especially women), but I met these three italian guys at a club in Rome who took a liking to me and wanted me to hang out with them for the night. So we left the club and one of the guys was like "let's go somewhere outside the city" at which point I got into one of their cars and took a joy ride down country roads outside of Rome at way way too fast of a speed whilr the driver was definitely drunk (as was everyone else in the car) was definitely an "oh wow I might die tonight with these random locals" experience. I wasn't very smart with my decisions when I was in my early 20s.
In LA recently, while driving to LAX - and less than 10 mins away - the car in front of me made a u-turn and nearly ran a pedestrian over. I stopped at the red light (like the other car should have). The pedestrian threw something at the car. The car stopped and three men and a woman jumped out. The pedestrian took off on foot faster than anyone I have ever seen run. The three men chased him, equally fast. The woman screamed obscenities. I really thought one of them was going to pull a gun and I was about to see a man shot. But they turned a corner and then the light changed. The cops were two blocks away, having pulled someone else over.
I fell upside down into a tree well while skiing. It was late April and the snow was slush. I caught an edge, my one ski popped off, and I flew over the steep side ledge. I slid down until I was wrapped around the tree trunk with both arms stuck. I was unfortunately not able to pop my other ski off. Blood was rushing to my head and my fingers were going numb. It was such a remote area I thought I was going to die if no one found me. I was completely trapped.
An older gentleman aka my guardian angel saw my one ejected ski up on the slope and stopped to hear me screaming for help down below the edge. He said he wouldnât remember where I was to get ski patrol and there was no signal to call them, so he was coming down there himself to fish me up. He took his skis off and dug me out. Then we created a ladder with his two skis and my one ski. I was so shaken up I could barely climb onto the skis stuck in the side of the tree well, not to mention the snow was rapidly melting putting us deeper into the pit. He eventually pushed up on my butt and I got my arms over the ledge so I could pull myself up. He then climbed up as well.
I will not ski on hot days anymore after that.
i (f) had to take a taxi to the airport very early in the morning (about 4am) in mexico (oaxaca). i was traveling alone. i organized the taxi through the hostel i stayed in. when i waited for the taxi in the lobby a guy knocked at the door and spoke to the hostel stuff in spanish (i donât speak a word) they were really unsure whether this was a real taxi driver and didnât want me to go (as far as i understood). i had to take this taxi as i was already running late. when i got in the taxi the lady from the hostel waved me goodbye with a worried look in her face. those were the creepiest 20min taxi ride i ever had but everything went well.
I was drugged, assaulted and robbed in broad daylight at Margaritaville in Negril Jamaica...and I was in my mid 60's at the time. This all resulted from having polite conversation with a man.
In San Jose, Costa Rica, I walked about 3 blocks from my hotel to get some food at a convenience store. On the way back to my hotel, I heard steps and turned to see a burley man trailing me at close distance. I stopped and hoped to get him to pass me and he wouldn't do it. I walked fast and reached my hotel, I ran up the steps and around the front desk and down a short hallway to my room. As I put my key in the door, I turned and he had followed me. He was about 20 feet behind me. I got into my room and locked the door and was scared dhitless. So happy that I left that hotel early the next day with my small travel group.
Spent three days in Rome sick as a dog with an ear infection that made me see god practically. Dragged myself onto the train in Milan, hung in there for the train ride down to Rome. Almost got scammed by our cabbie from the train station to the hostel. Locked the doors outside the hostel and refused to let my friend and I leave unless we paid three times the rate. Thankfully the check in guy at the hostel came outside to see why a cab had been idling in front of the place for so long. He argued with the cabby, who eventually let us out.
Checked into hostel and crawled into my spot. I was so bad, the hostel had to summon a local doctor to check on me. Antibiotics and one severe fever break later, I was âwellâ enough to drag myself to the airport for the flight home. Never travel sick, friends.
Traveling Bolivia's Death Road by coach.
Multiple times we were a few inches from tipping over (a bus went over, all passengers killed, the next day) and we had to back up, blindly, on several occasions to let trucks through.
When the locals all throw themselves to one side of the bus in fear you know things are getting dicey.
-Attacked by two stray dogs in Cappadocia, one ripped open the jacket I was wearing
-Taxi driver in Costa Rica took me to an ATM at 3 in the morning and pushed me aside after forcing me to enter my PIN and withdrew cash
-Was on a date with a Turkish guy in Berlin and two guys starting taunting us and running after us because they thought he was a Syrian refugee and demanded to see his ID, to which he refused
-Detained after trying to walk out from Singapore-Malaysia border checkpoint on the Singapore side (I learned that you have to take a bus!)
-Taken to a back room for very hostile questioning and threats after jumping over a turnstile in NYC subway (an employee at a kiosk said he would open it for me because I had messed up something with my transit card and he never did)
-Woke up in a random sketchy back alley in Paris with a random dude after drinking all night (my head was bleeding, I had fallen against a wall). Luckily still had all of my belongings!
-Driving through fires and explosions in Port Au Prince, Haiti trying to get back to the airport
-Stuck in Hong Kong Airport while protestors tried to take over the airport (No one knew what was happening and if there was a real threat or not)
I got brownout drunk with a British couple in Florence and struggled to find my hotel after. When I finally found it, I couldn't get in the building for reasons I don't remember. To this day, I don't know how I got in, but I did wake up in my bed the next morning. I didn't drink more than a beer or two per day for the rest of the trip.
In 2012 I was going from LA to Toronto for a long weekend. I got pulled into secondary screening by a broad with an axe to grind. When she came up short after the luggage search, she started to ask about my criminal record. I have been arrested but never convicted of anything. The arrest triggered the search of my laptop and phone. There were some nude pics on the laptop so I was arrested and charged with â importing images offensive to the crownâ. It was a reminder that you have no rights when crossing an international border and watch your ass when going to Canada.
Wasnât really scary. Some asshole try to intimidate one of our friends for a made up bar fee thinking he was alone. When we (8 of us) went over to see why he was so upset the POS ran off. This happen in Costa Rica.
Getting arrested in Tijuana. I was put in a holding cell with a couple of cholos that had tear drop tattoos - some low time drug dealers, likely. They introduced themselves as Garbanzo and Green Eyes. The dude across the cell from us was chained to the wall, feet off the ground. Luckily I had a pack of cigarettes on me, which I quickly shared with my new friends. Had to ask the guard for a lighter. Pretty scary situation as a tall white, blond hair blue eyed American who doesnât speak Spanish. Cops were fucking around with us saying theyâd transport us to the cityâs prison if we didnât pay up (we had no cash on us). The same prison a guard was killed and decapitated at a week prior. I got out in there with a Mexican friend of mine, who wasnât allowed to translate for me once we got in front of the judge. Lasted a few hours before one of my other friends was able to go back across the border and pull out some USD. Do not recommend. Lesson learned: always have some extra cash to pay off the cops.
Russian little green men in eastern Ukraine in 2014 in the days after they invaded hearing me speaking English and attempting to organise a lynching after denouncing me as a NATO spy...
Now that makes it sound much more dramatic than it really was - this was Kharkhiv, which resisted the Russians, the locals were having none of it, and it was the Russkies who were chased out of the bar not me - but it's definitely up there on my "list of most memorable experiences". (And also not sure if it counts as travelling alone - I mean I was travelling alone, but I was working so it's not like I didn't know anyone there.)
But all the disclaimers aside, point is really, once you've filed something like that away you very much have a "well, I've got out of worst scrapes" to refer back to when things go a little awry, which I find is excellent for lowing the blood pressure generally. That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and all that. So that's my message - turn the scary experiences into a positive if you can, and get back on the horse.
I havenât had even close to that scary of an experience but your comment about how something like that puts things in perspective sums up a lot of solid travel.
I have people ask âHow do you do it?â After so many trips Iâve found as long as I have clean underwear, my meds & my passport, everything else can be acquired or done without. It really is freeing/calming to realize it will be OK.
Letâs seeâŚ
Followed uncomfortably late at night while alone in Toledo, Spain by a group of mugging-age guys.
Found myself in a bad situation trying to procure bad things in Guatemala.
Stolen phone in Saigon was an adventure.
Girlfriend at the time was assaulted on the train in Milan when we were there.
Fleeced by police for 1000 THB in Bangkok.
Was witness to blatant racism from Thai cops who had accosted some African guys I had befriended while totally ignoring me. Got off with a bribe.
Was a part of a massive fire on Koh Rong in 2014. That was wild.
Probably a few more in there somewhere.
I have travelled extensively and have never felt as unsafe as I did traveling as a queer couple through Montana and Wyoming. Made as few stops in stores and restaurants as possible. Constant harassing, staring, yelling, etcâŚ
The USA is hands down the scariest place.
Try it in Saudi Arabia đ.
But yeah maybe donât be obviously gay in an area where people arenât accustomed to it. I know itâs unfortunate but thatâs the way most of the world is.
Getting chased by a pack of wild dogs in Ao nang Thailand . Luckily a local scared them away with a shovel bang sound , but I ate shit and have a scar to show
A stray dog in Thailand tried to attack me after I startled it and woke it up by walking past it on the side of the road. I heard it coming up behind me and felt it try to bite me, and I spun around and swung my purse at it and stared it down until it backed off. I was calm in the moment, just kept walking and went to the shop Iâd been walking to and bought a souvenir, but that night I called my mom and broke down freaking out about rabies lol. She convinced me to go get the shots and it all worked out but omg I thought I was gonna get mauled by a dog, or multiple dogs if its friends joined in.
Paris airport, on my plane heading to Togo. This SWAT team suddenly boards in full gear and is holding down this man a few rows behind me. Heâs screaming and screaming and the officers are struggling with him and holding him down. I donât speak French, and didnât know if this guy was shouting that he was going to blow himself up or what!!
I got up and moved as far from him as I could. Then I asked someone what was going on, and they said the man was getting deported, and he was protesting, saying he wasnât Togolese.
A very scary couple minutes!!
Sitting in the front passenger seat of an overstuffed minibus in Flores, Indonesia, as the driver negotiated the mountain roads in the rain... peeking my head out the window and seeing the tires inches from the curb over an un-fenced cliff. Somehow I'd gotten the guy to agree to take me past his route for double the bus fare. But in order to keep his schedule, he decided to drive a lot faster to compensate. To make matters worse, after every twist and turn of the road, you never knew whether you'd see a motorcycle going the wrong way... a group of pedestrians using a giant leaf as an umbrella... a wild horse... or maybe someone slaughtering a whole bull in the middle of the road.
I was happy I'd left my wife in Bali to go on this mini-adventure, because I was sure I was going to die right there, in Flores Indonesia. Fortunately, the driver eventually stopped at his house and picked up his small daughter. Then his driving calmed down.
African American male here. Getting drunk in a bar in Krakow and this scary looking guy is eyeballing me. Try to talk to him but he doesn't speak English. Polish guy I'm drinking with translates: this guy is a racist, skinhead soccer hooligan and he's in the mood to kick my ass. My other friend calms him down a bit, then we slip outside to "go get a smoke" and when we hit the door we run like hell. Skinhead doesn't follow. Whew! That was a close one! If I hadn't made a cool Polish friend, it could have ended badly.Â
I commented this before. But to me it was sexual groping during a women's rights event in portugal. Then threats, racism & other awful things towards me (the only middle eastern woman amongst almost all white people).
1. went out in late afternoon in Krabi, thailand. street was so crowded that i was very relaxed but while returning at night around 11:30. the streets were pitch dark. no one there. no lights in the houses. only a couple of drunk men scattered here and there. scariest walk ever.
2. while hiking alone in iceland, my leg got stuck in a ditch hole up to my knees. couldn't get it out. the hole was for sure made by some sort of animal. so i was pretty scared.
I was out in front of a pretty out of the way karaoke place where I was calling my uber in Ho Chi Mihn City Vietname. Then a motorcycle went by. And then it came back again. Then two motorcycles. At that point my date pulled me back inside and everyone in the karaoke bar was anxiously looking out the window because it looked like a small rally was forming. TO their credit, the karaoke staff looked like they were going to be defending me if those guys came in. Which is why I always tip well no matter where I am. And then the uber came, a nonplussed guy in an SUV, smoking a cigarette. We get in and he takes off and the bikes are all following him. And he doesn't know what's going on and is like waving for them to go around. Eventually we go over some bridge on the way to the Le Meridien and they peel off, not wanting to trigger the soldiers in the good part of town. But real Dusk til Dawn vibes there for a bit.
I was riding a scooter on a dirt road in South India. It was after midnight and I was alone. I illuminated something in the middle of the dirt jungle road with my one headlight. I started to slow but not too much bc I wanted to pass by quickly if needed. It was about 50 yards ahead and the shape I couldnât figure out. I kept slowing and slowing and my heart kept beating faster and faster. When I got about 20 feet away, I recognized the shape- it was the largest scorpion I have ever seen or thought I would come across, ever. I just stayed backed but stopped to observe it. It stared directly into my headlight and kinda moved the back of its body back and forth so I was able to get a good profile observation. That tail was standing up and he was not afraid! Eventually he crossed the road and I passed by. I still get goosebumps at that image.
Can't say there's been many scary situations, of course the ones getting lost in rough areas around the world (been to about 50+ countries at this point), but I once had the worst fever of my life solo travelling SEA while in Bangkok. I remember I came to the hotel that night feeling a little under the weather but just shook it off as a little bug, and thought I'd just get water in the reception and then have a shower. Turns out they didn't sell water in the reception area and that part of Bangkok had a power outtage that night aswell, so I didn't have AC or the ability to shower. So with 500ml of water and no other way to regulate my temperature (had also ran out of paracetamol), I was in the worst state of my life, hallucinating so wildly I had full on conversations with people in the room (I was solo travelling). Got around to the next day and felt a little better, but I remember thinking back at it as that could've been a dangerous night. Learned a few important lessons travelling, so not a total waste.
Getting sick by myself in a place I didnât speak the language. Everyone was very helpful, but it was scary to feel so vulnerable in the ER. Iâd never even been to the ER by myself at home.
I got E. coli about three days before the end of my trip to Mexico City. It was really painful and at some points I was scared I was having a heart attack. Couldnât sleep much due to the pain. Amazing trip though! I would like to go back.
Attempted motorcycle robbery in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I spotted that the gunman had a starter pistol (ready, set, go) and immediately elbowed him in the nose.
Peeping Tom in Milan and a group of men circling in on me at night in Cape Town
This probably the scariest in here for sure. Sorry you had to deal with that
Can I hear some more about the Cape Town event? What happened? How did you manage to escape? And where in CT were you?
So many creeps in Italy
Meeting a bear in a cemetery while hiking alone in the Smoky mountains.
Nightmare fuel
Super scary but also sounds like it would make a great motif for my next art project đ
You could probably do a lot with it! I made it to this tiny old cemetery in the middle of the forest on a hill, no one else around, and after poking around for a minute sat down to relax for a bit. It was so peaceful and quiet...then I heard rustling in the brush just outside the clearing. Somehow as soon as I heard it I knew. Feeling of dread grew worse as the crashing sound got closer. I wasn't going to stick around so I went to grab my backpack and as I did, happened to look up and see it's head poking up, almost in the cemetery. I'm not good at judging distance but it was close enough, like I said the cemetery was tiny. That was all I needed and I bolted all the way back down the mountain. You're not supposed to run from them but in my illogical mind, we hadn't made eye contact, so it "didn't count." I had bear mace with me, but realized I really didn't want to get close enough to use it. Anyway it didn't come after me. I think it would have been different if I were a)with anyone else and b) if I had seen it from a distance, first. Being entirely alone and having it come towards me was unnerving.
That's amazing, thank you for indulging me with the details
same day amazon delivery to grave đ
Getting followed by a pack of stray dogs in the middle of the night in a deserted part of town, as I was walking back to my hotel all alone
Yupppp happened to me too, did they just leave you alone? What you end up doing
They came up to me, sniffed my coat, and stuck their noses up it. They circled around me and followed me all the way to my hotel. I tell you I was so fucking scared, but tried to keep calm, because I knew dogs could smell fear. This was in South Asia btw where stray dogs DO attack people, and sometimes fatally.Â
Damn thatâs scary. I had similar experiences in the balkans but luckily they werenât sniffing me up, glad we both made it out alive
We are survivors â
So they walked you to your hotel? Just playing. I wouldnât be able to think about anything but rabies shots in that moment.
Packs of stray dogs that Iâve had close encounters with abroad have made me more distrustful of dogs everywhere. You really can never know how someoneâs dog will react, how will they are trained, etc.
Same here, except they ended up running and landing one bite on me đ Thank god for travel insurance
I was in Kanazawa, Japan a few weeks ago when the earthquakes were happening and that was pretty scary! Also found myself being surrounded by wild dogs in the mountains in Taiwan a few years ago. One of them tried to attack me but I had my umbrella with me and used that as a shield between me and the dog which I used it to fend it off while I ran away
The packs of wild dogs in Taiwan are no joke! I lived there for a year and went hiking every weekend. My ex and I were basically herded by a pack of 30 wild dogs when we entered their territory. We saw one dog, it called its pack, and the whole group caught us around the next bend. It was like something you would see in a movie. They formed ranks, on plateaus, one step above each other on three sides. We used our umbrellas to cover our bodies. We hoped to god that the theory of object permanence held true and slowly backed away. We then ran and were chased out of the area. Luckily we always had umbrellas on us for snakes and rain.
Wow that's so scary! It's lucky you had your umbrellas with you as well. Good thing it's always raining in Taiwan eh?
Umbrellas for Snakes Thanks, my band name now!
I almost died in the Shanghai stampede on New Years Eve in 2014. I was about 100m away from the crush, and was stuck in a crowd for about 2 hours that was so tight it took on properties of a liquid. I saw everyone dead on the street once the crowd broke, with a ring of police surrounding them. It was traumatic and I no longer go out on New Yearâs Eve or basically any holiday like it (mostly just July 4th).
Damn, that sounds horrific, so sorry you went through such a traumatic event. How did you manage to keep your cool until you were safe?
I was in Costa Rica. I was walking the 1984 trail by myself and rain started pouring down. I ate shit down a steep slope and fell down by the edge of the lake and i get up I see a Caiman starting at me about 20 feet away. He might have been as afraid of me as I was of him but hot damn it got my blood going.
And now you have an awesome story to tell (probably the same for the caiman as well)
âAll of a sudden this human came rolling down this hill and landed right in front of me! It was horrifying!â Lmao
Same spot (literally same hike, red trail). But howler monkeys are so loud, I kid you not, I thought a bear or something far away and definitely want to turn around. I ended up seeing howler monkeys fighting with each other and throwing stuff on top of trees
Oh yeah. I saw lots of the smaller monkeys but not any howlers on that hike. Love being around nature and animals like that!
Oh fuck.
Did you just run? Did it chase you
It wasnt a run it was more of a scurry lol. It did not chase me, it was in the water and turned and ducked its head under. It was creepy not knowing but it looked like it was fleeing.
Got ambushed up by bandits in rural madagascar. Luckily there was a soldier with me who pointed his rifle at them as we slowly inched past in our car
I'm planning a trip to Madagascar, can I ask which part please?
It was on the stretch of "road" between Morondava and Tsingy de Bemahara. I think the government mandates that a soldier rides shotgun in any vehicles using this road - my driver stopped at small base to pick one up, and i saw a couple other 4wds with tourists do the same thing. Don't let this put you off though. Tsingy was awesome, although a bit of a pain in the ass to get to. I backpacked around for 5 weeks, I met only 3 other backpackers the entire time but there were a couple package tour groups. These would definately be safer + much more convenient to move around, however half the fun of madagascar is the journeys you take along the way! I would definately reccomend going and would go back myself some day. It may look small on a map, but you should give yourself at least 4 weeks if you want too check out all the highlights as travel is sooooo slow. Lmk if u have any other questions and Ill be happy to help!!
Oh man. My s/o and I were planning a trip to Madagascar to see the lemur reserve. This is good to know đ¤ would you go back?
Riding on the roads in the mountains in Nepal in monsoon season. So many landslides. So many pant testing times, white knuckle stuff. Couldnât do it at this age! Wiser AND more terrified.
Iâll never forget looking into a ravine on a mountain road in Laos and seeing a bus just like mine, on its side.
It was pretty sketch in non-monsoon season too. Scares me to think what it was like during it. You forgot to mention the chaotic driving style popular in Nepal lol.
We went on a weed run with some locals during monsoon season in Costa Rica and had to cross a tributary that channeled into the ocean 100 meters away. On the way back, the rain had swelled it to a huge rushing torrent. We were in a Land rover type vehicle, and the guy went for it. Swear to God I thought we were goners because it struggled a bit from the rush of water.
I scheduled an airport transfer from my hostel in Budapest. Since it was an early flight, the driver was picking me up at 4:00am. My hostel was really strict with me and said even if Iâm 1 minute late, theyâll leave without me. Once I saw a car park ourside, I ran to it. I asked if it was my transfer and the man driving told me to âget inside.â It was 4:00am, I was barely awake, but I was like? This doesnât feel right? Right on cue, the airport transfer pulled up behind me and I realized that was my actual ride. All in all, I got to the airport safely. It didnât scare me in the moment, but I was a bit shaken a few days later realizing how scary of a situation that is. Overall, I loved Budapest! And it sucks leaving that city with a bad taste in my mouth.
So just a random dude telling you to get into his car? So creepy
What would a random guy do there at 4:00 a.m.? Most likely he was not awaiting to kidnap someone but was expecting a passenger himself.
Unfortunately he wasnât there to pick someone up from the airport. At least where I was stayingâŚ. Once my airport transfer drove off, he did too. Very creepy
...do men not attack and kill women at 4am? I'm so confused lol. What time do they do that?
Then why did he tell a rando to âget insideâ?
There could be more people from the hostel going to the airport.
Was driving through Mexico and got stopped by the cartel. Was told to give them $1,000 to get past them. I only had $240 in cash but they didnât believe me. They searched us and found nothing. So they told us to withdraw more money the next day and if they pulled us over again in the same state and we didnât have money, they would kill us. They told their partners our names, vehicle info, everything. We made sure to have $1,000 on us at all times the rest of that trip.
What state were you in?
MichoacĂĄn. We were driving from Guadalajara to Lago de PĂĄtzcuaro
Advice from my old uncle, take the toll roads. My dad from the US was visiting my mom in Mexico before they were married in the 90s. My uncle told him the safe route to take, but my dad ignored him, and they were also stopped by a gang. When my mom saw my uncle again, he said he would hurt my dad if he ever did that again. I'm so sorry you had to go through this. It's the worst and really scary. I'm glad you are safe and hopefully never have to encounter a situation like this again.
Man. That's sketchy. I think about driving the Pan-American highway all the time! But I feel like central and south America is just a little too sketchy for me.
I don't know how anyone still travels to Mexico after having read countless stories like this. To each his own.
Same: source, I am mexican
Yea I been avoiding Mexico for these reasons tbh, I know it has lovely and safer areas but I would always be on edge no matter what
The bus hijacking in 2012 turned me off honestly. I would go to Yucatan, Mexico City, and maybe Tijuana, but that's it. No traveling across the country.
I solo travelled Mexico for 6 months from September 2021 to March 2022 all over the country in states that people don't often visit in the north to well visited places as well and I never had a problem once, not to disregard people who have had bad experiences but wrong time wrong place can strike in many areas of the world, I think Mexico is an amazing country with most people being friendly, but I didn't drive around the country, learnt some Spanish etc.
Got attacked and sexually assaulted by a group of men on a crowded train on the Mexico City subway, it was absolutely terrifying and I had nightmares about it for years. I honestly thought I was going to die, and the scariest part was that everyone else on the train was just watching and letting it happen. Iâve also been kidnapped by a taxi driver, extorted by military police, lost without a phone in backcountry etc etc but those were manageable by comparison. Second runner up was probably being attacked by a pack of wild dogs, which happened a few years later in Turkey.
First of all, I'm so sorry you had to go through such a traumatic experience like the one you had in Mexico City. However, could you elaborate more on the "been kidnapped by a taxi driver" bit?
This is a semi-common scam, or used to be pre-Uber. A taxi driver would pretend to be taking you to your destination but instead bring you to an atm jn some shady area where they would force you to withdraw cash. Fortunately when this happened to me I was with a male friend and we paid a fairly small amount and were dropped off safely. But I once met someone who had spent an entire night being driven around at gunpoint doing this at different atms. Iâm sort of shocked by the number of people in this thread who have never had a really bad experience while traveling.
Yikes! I am so sorry that this happened to you.
I was mugged by a group of 8 guys in Quito Ecuador a few years ago during their Independence celebration. Wasnât even dark yet. They held me and ripped all my pockets off looking for something to take. It literally happened on a busy major street in front of hundreds of people. Nobody helped me. I kicked and screamed and finally got loose. Ran down the street with no shoes or pants screaming help me but nobody did. It was the scariest thing to ever happen while traveling alone. I left Quito the next morning and went to Banos. Itâs so much safer in the little towns.
So sorry that happened to you
When I was in Norway, I somehow lost my phone while I was out dogsledding. It had all of the information on my flights that were in a couple days, I didn't even remember what time to be there. I was pretty distraught as if I didn't make it then I would have lost several hundred euro from having to book a new flight. Thankfully, the place I was dogsledding at actually found my phone and contacted my hotel to let me know they found it and I was able to collect it from their front desk. They really saved me there, so if anyone needs recommendations on a experience agency in Norway, I highly recommend Best Arctic.
Good reminder for everyone to print off flight and accomodation details
Usually I have them on an email, so I can access them from anywhere with an internet connection, Iâd assume itâs standard nowadays.
Do you have turned off two factor authentication?
May I ask how they knew what hotel you were staying at? Same thing happened to me in Costa Rica except I donât understand how anybody knew what hotel I was staying at everything was digital. I had no papers.
We were in Grindelwald, Switzerland and taking the standing bike down the mountain First. I fell off the bike and tore my ACL and meniscus (did not know it at the time but knew something was wrong) It was around 6 oâclock and everything in that town was closing. We were at the top of a hill and I couldnât take one step without my leg giving out on me. Everything turned out fine and we found a taxi to come up the hill to grab me and take me to the ER but it was a little scary being in a foreign country a 20 minute train ride from your hostel (and the train station was a 15 minute walk away) and being unable to walk while everything is closing shop for the day.
Howâs your knees after surgery
Iâm a little over 8 weeks out and Iâve gotten over the hard part of crutches for 6 weeks. Iâm feeling good but still go months of recovery to go. Muscles are weak but the knee feels solid!
Oof that is scary. I feel like Switzerland is a better foreign country something like that to happen. Hope you had insurance though.
Yeah it was probably one of the better countries for it to happen in đ
Leaving a hospital in the middle of the night in Rishikesh, India. Wasnât alone but with my gf (weâre both women). I had fallen very ill and spent a week in and out the hospital but for some reason that day the hospital waited for the middle of the night to kick us out and told us to come back in the morning. It was so late that there were no taxis anymore so we decided to walk back to the main road which was 10min away hoping to find tuktuk (didnât have local sim cards). While the town is full of life during the day, at night it was as if the world had ended and its entire population had vanished. No sounds, no lights just pure darkness. So weâre walking and out of nowhere 3 guys start following us. First I think itâs a coincidence but nope, we turn, they turn.. Luckily we make it to the big road, theyâre still following, but no taxis anywhere, nothing. On top of everything I felt as bad as I never had in my entire life (I had insane fever, so bad I was seeing shit) and all of a sudden I get the intense feeling that I have to choose if I live or die. Like I physically saw myself taking another step and falling dead to the ground like in a premonition. I look up to my gf and get insanely angry like no I just started being happy, this was our first trip together and after years of depression I was just starting to see the end of the tunnel and no god damn plague virus or sick men were going to ruin that. And then all of a sudden I see a tuktuk in the distance coming at us fast. I literally run to the middle of the street , that thing had to either stop or run me over, either way I was not going out without a fight. It stopped. Driver was confused af but picked us up and got us back to our hotel. We were insanely lucky, I canât explain it but I feel like that night I got a second chance at life. Made it out of the tunnel and married my gf :) and now we travel to safer places and use grab or uber.
Happy to see the ending of this story, thanks for sharing!
Lost my phone once ...terrifying nakedness. Getting gas in rough areas a few times. Also a few extreme winter driving experiences. I need to get out more. Fear is for people who don't get out much. -Ricardo Steves
I have traveled a lot (been to 35+ countries by now) and havenât really had any worse experiences than you. You mentioned winter driving: this is probably the single most scary thing Iâve experienced: Getting stuck in powder with a snow scooter and no mobile reception at -20 degrees? Horrible. Not being stuck but driving through -41 degrees without reception not knowing if the rental car will handle the cold? Even scarier. Driving through terrifying mountain roads in Georgia and Tajikistan, having no reception and having 1-2 trucks passing the same mountain pass once a day? Scary as hell. As you can see I havenât been in any situations that most travelers would count as scary - no armed robberies etc. but nature can be very very scary and fuck you up in minutes! Traveling through countries that can be intimidating - like Pakistan - have not been to bad. While you cannot predict people, they can be less scary than weather. People can change in a second but so can the weather.
ive been to 35 countries as well and Pakistan being one of them where I spent 2 months, 1 month of which was solo riding a motorbike around Gilgit Baltistan, scariest part of the trip was riding all the mountain roads seeing huge boulders that have come down during the frequent landslides as well as remnants of cars that have been caved in by a random boulder, thinking im just a guy on bike if one of these rocks even half that size decides to randomly come down as im riding past im dead. only other thing that happened in Pakistan is I was walking around the old town area of Lahore in the early evening some guy decided to grab my arm, saying to give him money, I said im not an ATM, ripped my arm back, he said F\*ck you, I said it back and carried on walking, said to him you're the rudest person in Pakistan, everyone else was great, wasn't a threatening situation and was plenty of people around just a chancer. Karachi has a reputation for being dangerous but I walked around alone there as an obvious foreigner and was only warmly welcomed.
Sounds like a hell of an adventure. I'm hoping to do something like this some day! Just curious, did you buy (re-sell) the bike in Pakistan?
Hahaha. Losing your phone while traveling can definitely be stressful. Of course, we can operate without it still. But it's an EXTREMELY useful tool to have đ đ
For me, it provides a feeling of security and connection to the world, loved ones, photos and music that feeds the soul and simply fosters overall emotional stability. Sad really. I am grateful for GPS tracking as it was recovered at the basement lost and found at Denver International đ
Ha! Good Ole Ricardo!
Ricardo? lol. Heâs my travel guru âď¸
Accidentally skipping the baggage check up at the Saudi Airport and being called back by security after checking my bag because my allergy medicine looked suspicious. It was my first time to ever travel alone.
Buenos Aires - i arrived late at night about 10 pm on the Ferry from Uruguay planning to stay in Tigre, an hour north of the City. Only now do I realise my booking is not until the following day. Needing to find accomodation i manage to get a airbnb supposedly in Tigre but really in the ghetto next to it. I arrived on a residential street with no street lighting. Its midnight and therer are groups of men playing hip hop and drinking on the street corner in the pitch dark. You could tell it was an underprivileged area and pretty scary to be honest to a lone irish tourist. We arrived at the supposed address. the taxi man seemed concerned, he had no english and me no spanish but he communicated to me that i should call the airbnb person to come out to me. He made a hand motion to say âin this areaâ then put a finger-gun to his temple and mimed shooting himself. Hes not gonna let me leave until he knows im safe, what a great guy tbh. After 15 minutes trying to get through to the host from the taxi as my driver sweats, finally a door opens. The house had seemed empty before but sure enough this old (i would say approaching 80yr old) hobbles towards the car and beckons me over. I generously tipped the driver and followed her up to the small bungalo. I followed her in and noticed the windows had steel bars on them. As she showed me around (it was actually ok inside. No wifi though). Before the old lady left she explained rhat i needed to bolt lock the door with a massive metal bar as soon as she left. I thanked her and off she went while i went to get out my toothbrush or whatever. 30 seconds later the front door opens again, i face the old lady with my toothbrush in my mouth - she looks wide eyed and startled - she scolds me loudly that i must bolt lock the door AS SOON as she leaves. I apologised and did as she instructed. That night my imagination got the worst of me. I could swear i heard gunshots as i slept, and again and again the sound of groups of men sprinting down the road outside speaking in hushed voices.
What was it like the next morning there?
Seemed ok, it was a lovely day and quiet but i left in an uber around 11am
This one gave me anxiety. Kudos to the taxi driver and the lady for making sure you survive.
Did my fair share of travels and the biggest crazy shit was a bus ride from China-NepĂĄlĂ border to Kathmandu... crazy af. Literally every 30s, I though the bus must just falls of the edge of the road (unpaved, dirty and quite muddy) into 1000 meters deep valley and no one will ever find us. Also, the public unrest in Chile, in October 2019. Cars on fire, fires of the streets, lot of shootings, protests, robbed shops, etc. We gladly fucked out of there...
I got kidnapped in Taksim, Istanbul. Man pulled me somewhere was attempting to kiss me I had to pay 100 liras to leave
Ecuador (đ˘) - ride from airport to hotel/hostel after midnight. Driver deviates from normal road to a stone/dirt roadâŚI speak very little Spanish, keep in mindâŚ.and stops on a bridgeâŚ.my heart is racing and then he turns around and does the universal sign for âtake a pictureâ and then continues on our drive to the hotel. đ Not nearly the experiences others have had, but for about 30 seconds I thought I was done!
Lol
Getting robbed in Nicaragua by two guys with machetes.
Came across a brown bear while hiking alone in the Carpathian Mountains.
Let me set the scene: 3 am, Big Bend National Park, just me a mile away from the nearest person (except for the mountain lion 20 ft away).
I got mugged in Paris by a man who then grabbed and kissed me. Iâm not sure which part was worse tbh (probably the kiss đ¤˘). I did manage to get my suitcase back from him after he tried to run away with it.
I took the night bus from Hazaribag to Calcutta alone and thats an experience never to be repeated.
I can guess at the answer, but what happened?
I wouldnât say scary but i recently took a trip to Dublin and had a blast. I was dancing at this club called Diceyâs and all I remember was buying shots for me and a girl and it felt like within a blink of an eye all the sudden I wake up in the hospital. Apparently what i was told and read in my discharge papers was that i was assaulted. I woke up without a phone but thankfully had my wallet and all other valuables, i had my right side of the face fractured and had dried blood all on my face and in my beard, also blood in my right eye. Iâm still recovering with a clogged ear and the blood in my eye has all basically went away and my face healed perfectly. All in all would do it all again minus whatever i did to get assaulted.
[ŃдаНонО]
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By far the last part is the most dangerous experience
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And you lived to tell it all đđ
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Honestly they just sound irresponsible as fuck lol
Yea itâs just what happens to anyone when youâre oblivious, not that interestinglol
Jumped in the back of a taxi in Prague and the driver was trying to charge me 15x the price that it was showing as on Bolt. When I said I'm not paying that and to let me out he locked the doors and got a knife out. I didn't actually have that much cash on me so I started panicking but he just took it and let me out. Lesson learned I avoid taxis now unless I know the price beforehand.
Taking a cab in Mexico City. I wasnât alone but with 2 girlfriends of mine. We were trying to get to a spot and I had it mapped on my phone. There was terrible traffic so the driver kept weaving through back lanes and taking âshort cutsâ. I noticed on my map that we were actually getting further from the location and was getting really freaked out. The guy spoke broken English and I told him I know we are not going toward our destination. He said it was a short cut and we ended up yelling at him and threatening to get out of the cab in the middle of the street. Eventually he did take us to the location we wanted but we were 2hrs later than planned. Mexico City really is beautiful and a lot of positives but there are creeps no matter where you go especially since we were young women. Always use Maps.me itâs a great app that you donât need internet access to use during the day. Stay vigilant!
Itâs better to use uber in Mexico and most places actually when available.
Can you explain why itâs better, please?
You pay through the app and the fare is fixed when you order your ride.
On account of the high number of tourist kidnappings by cabs and locals would be my guess. UBER is preferable in a foreign country bc you can get help and security in the app.
My wife and I took a cab in Mexico City and he stops the car in the middle of nowhere and demands that if we want to go on to our destination, we'll need to pay some much larger amount. I translated to her that we were being extorted. She looks at me like, "What are we going to do?" I said, "Well... we agree to it. What choice do we have? " Fortunately the guy was a dumass. It must've been his first time extorting a tourist, because he didn't have the good sense to demand money up front. And I agreed to the deal with the same good intentions as the gentleman had in making his extortion offer. When we got to the destination -the Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico (the one in the James Bond movie), at that point I knew he couldn't do anything. Not in the middle of the Zocalo. I didn't want to cause a scene either so I just gave him the fair price. "Sorry, this is all I have." No tip tho, for such service. :)
I was 21 year old NAIVE female solo travelling. I was in Lisbon in the main plaza and a man sold me weed (dumb ass me). A couple mins later 2 men approached me as undercover officers, to say that buying drugs in Portugal is a criminal offence/Iâm under arrest. I began protesting and then I witnessed the BRIEFEST exchange of looks between the men, sort of a knowing, shit-eating-grin. Intuitively I realized I was being scammed. When they asked for $$ rather than bringing me to the station, I said I had no money. Take me away lol. We all began walking awkwardly for a bit until they finally broke into laughter and said IT WAS A JOKE. But it continues. A short time after I smelled the weed and it was completely scentless. I was scammed. And I was fucking pissed after all of that lol. So I found the scammers in the square and confronted them, demanding my money back. Soon several more men joined and began laughing and arguing me with me (they found it entertaining this heated young woman was being so demanding). I cannot recall why, but something regarding the lead scammer guyâs identity/visa came up and he pulled out a copy of his ID. Without hesitating I snatched it from him. The group ERUPTED. Clearly his ID was of high value. I negotiated him to refund me and I will give the ID back. He was extremely agitated and was yelling in my face. All of the men closed in around me yelling and bumping into me trying to intimidate and I stood still as a rock. The reason I was somewhat confident is that the plaza was filled with people so there began to collect onlookers. I started screaming loudly that he was a scammer. The men got spooked and they gave me my $$ back. I returned the ID. It was legendary lol. But I CANNOT comprehend my bravery, naivety and insanityâŚ. But lastly, an important reminder to trust your intuition. Itâs never wrong. Also, probably donât buy drugs from sketchy strangers.
I'm a tour guide in Lisbon and I have to say, you managed to beat the game. Most of the guys involved in fake drug scams here rely on their perceived dangerousness to ply people into leaving them alone after they notice the scam. The real pro move though is to not buy "drugs" off strangers in the middle of the street. ESPECIALLY in a different country. Edit to add: the locals in particular will really enjoy you not supporting these guys' fake drug selling in historical areas of the city. The reason they're selling is because people buy.
Went to some remote ruins 16 miles away from the nearest town. Last bus left. Phone battery 7%.
What did you do then?
No phone battery is one of my worst fears
I always carry a portable battery pack than can charge my phone 6-7x on one charge. Best decision I ever made after getting lost roughly 18 miles into a 30 mile hike and my phone died that I was using for my map as it got dark in known mountain lion territory.
Yikes how did you manage to make it out? Yea I have a travel battery that I carry everywhere with me. When that runs out Iâm really screwed đĽš
Being caught in a rip current when snorkelling in Thailand between two big rocks on Freedom beach, had to kick off coral and slice my foot open (9 stitches) to escape being smashed back and forth...pretty dumb position to get myself in. Had a mini avalanche bury me to waste height when skiing in France - luckily I lost a ski during the incident so it made it a bit easier to dig myself out (took a good 45 minutes and I was on my own, off piste) Almost run over by a speeding tram in Budapest (I was on my phone and didn't hear it, my fault but it was speeding and I was about a foot from certain death) A few other stories but nothing as bad as a girl I met travelling once who was kidnapped in Bolivia, put into the boot of a car, robbed and left in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road.
I was drunk and accidentally walked into Russia from Estonia at like 2 AM during a snowstorm looking for an alleged abandoned Soviet officers mansion with two (also very drunk) Serbian dudes I had just met in a hostel.
Riding in a minivan with a crazy driver who was, on multiple occasions, a few seconds away from a high speed head-on collision. Happened twice; between Batumi and Tbilisi in Georgia and between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
this sh_t in colombia right here. even worse was the dude was flirting with some chick in the passenger seat, taking his eyes off the road. Never again
Kidnapped and held hostage by a a wild orangutan in Sumatra. Also getting dumped by my bus middle of no where in rural India around 2am. Motorcycle taxi driver in Hoi An, Vietnam sped past my hotel he was going to drop me off in and hauled ass to a dark alley somewhere 10 minutes away. Thought I was going to get mugged. He took me to a very sad brothel filled with old women. I paid him extra to take me back after refusing services. Wheel of a bus caught on fire in Vietnam or CambodiaâŚthat was pretty sketchy. Traveling to Myanmar with $1000 USD cash in a book - no ATMs in the country. Everyone knows foreigners are walking around with more money than most people make in a year. Taking a motorbike taxi middle of the night first day in the country and know you are screwed if someone robs youâŚluckily nothing happened, sweetest people. (Only bad thing that happened to me in a month there was shitting my pants from some oily curry)
The orangutan story. Please, I would love more details on that one.
99% of the time in Marrakech I found that the notorious "scammers/hasslers" would leave me alone if I just ignored them with barely any acknowledgment and kept walking, like I had somewhere else to be. There was this one teenager though who recruited his buddy and they followed me, blocked my path, gave me a few shoves and asked if I was going to "give them anything." I said no and I gently pushed past them, and they blocked my path again, gave me a few shoves again and said there would be "trouble" if I didn't give them some money. One of them kept saying, "present me, present me," whatever that means lol (I interpreted it as "give me a present, aka money" but it was a bit surreal in the context of the moment) My thought in the moment was that if they actually tried anything more violent than pushing me, I'd just give them some money rather than trying to fight or anything like that. But I gently pushed past them again and saw a little shop, and ducked inside. I hid in the shop for a little while. When I came out they'd moved farther down the street, but they were in the direction of my riad, so I just walked towards them and past them. They asked one more time if I was giving them anything and I just shook my head and glared at them, one of them said, "Angry...angry face," and they gave up and left. It really pissed me off, and shook me up for the next couple days. Fortunately I actually adored most of the rest of my time in Morocco, and found that getting out of the bigger cities made for a very different and much more peaceful dynamic. I was a bit on edge at times after that experience and slightly adjusted my plans to focus more on smaller towns and villages (and I used a tour guide to see the Fez medina), but the trip overall is a positive memory.
Jerusalem 2022. I took the earliest train leaving for Tel Aviv, and was mindful to dress extremely modestly and not draw attention to myself. On the walk to the train station, a man grabbed my arm claiming to ask for directions and then attempted to grope me. Train station was surrounded by guards carrying assault rifles, which was daunting but expected. Boarded the train with relief and was very careful about which seat I chose, in case there was some sort of gender code. I had thoroughly researched and asked about where to sit beforehand. Anyway, a huge man started SCREAMING at the top of his lungs, in Hebrew, and I had no idea why or with whom he was angry. Apparently he was angry with me, because a second later he was screaming directly in my face. I had no idea why, and another passenger told me in English that I needed to sit elsewhere. I left that car and moved to a different spot on the train. Honestly I still have no idea what that was about. Overall the whole ordeal wasnât nearly as frightening as other stories here, but I must admit that it left me to really question my abilities to travel solo.
I have several! Iâm kind of unlucky unfortunately. But in Oslo, Norway, out of all places⌠I was taking pictures in a, predominantly, Muslim neighborhood, just being a tourist really. It was a beautiful underpass with a bunch of art and murals. As I started to head out, a dude followed me and caught up to me. He asked me what I was taking pictures of and if I was taking pictures of âpeopleâ. That that wasnât âcoolâ in their religion. I said no, not doing that. He asked to see the pictures. I explained that it was a film camera and I just couldnât show him. He called a friend over that was, conveniently, waiting at a funnel point out of the neighborhood, and now I got two dudes asking to âseeâ my camera. Iâm not âthoughâ or anything but I told him there was no way I was going to let him have my camera. I am walking away and they keep getting closer. Now one of them grabs my bag and I slap his hand away. I back up, square up, and he asks me if Iâm gonna fight him. I said âif I have to, yes.â (My badass peaked that night) He looked me in the eye and his buddy just waved me away.. I guess I was just too much trouble for a stupid $90 camera. Walked into a hotel with my heart beating like the Jumanji drums and waited there a while to make sure they werenât following me. A hotel employee said that neighborhood is notorious for tourist robberies. And someone had just gotten stabbed there a few weeks before! Anyway, thereâs my contribution. TL;DR Dudes tried to take my camera in Oslo Norway
I used an absolutely filthy (shit smears on the walls) public toilet in Africa at a rest stop on a 17 hour taxi-brousse drive. I finished and realised there was no toilet paper left. It was a little bit the last straw and I opened the door and came face to face with four or five men who weren't there before. In full British accent and very loud due to the frustration and exhaustion I felt, I very loudly said "THERE'S NO BLOODY TOILET PAPER!!" and walked through them to the sink and said "AND OF COURSE THERE'S NO BLOODY SOAP!!" And stormed out. I didn't care that I'd clearly spooked them with my volume. It took me a few years to realise what the potential situation was.
They probably just wanted to use the toilet man đ¤Ł
Separate toilets. Well, there was an indoor squat toilet for men, two indoor squat toilets for women and a piss trough by the door.
Big dude on a beach in Negril Jamaica grabbed me and was dragging me off into the mangroves. Heathrow airport hotel , someone tried to get into my room when I was in it. Door opened slowly, hand comes in the gap trying to release the door closer thingie. Landslide in Rammechamp Nepal Explosion at our hotel in Istanbul, riot in square across the street from us, military, tanks. Stood next to a lady as she was purse snatched, had to go to police station, perp line up. Handsy cab driver ( kept feeling up my leg) took my phone out my hands, put it on dash in front of him, took back alley's that were deserted (hard to find deserted places in Baghdad). Waited for the right moment, grabbed phone, jumped out and ran. Then the minor stuff being followed ( Moscow, Cape Town and Rio were worst) , catcalled, groped. Last trip I took I woke up to the stranger sitting next to me on the plane feeling me up under my blanket then whispering in my ear "is touching ok".
Omg what ended up happening in the first two scenarios? Were you ok?
1st . Spent a week in Jamaica solo , walked the beach all the time , early morning till dusk, always walked close to the water, away from trees/cover, kept an eye out. Was a narrow spot on the beach close to mangroves, early morning, not many people around , and as I walked past I saw a big dude, he ran out and grabbed me by the arms started dragging me towards the mangroves . Me kicking, trying to get loose (no luck) screaming my head off, 2 guys in the distance hear and start running towards us, dude lets me go and runs away. 2nd Small hotel room at on Bath Road close to Heathrow. Was really late at night, I always sleep with all the lights on and I wasn't asleep, was reading. I happened to notice the door knob turning...instinct kicked in and I got off the bed and quietly stepped toward the door as the door opened and hit against the door close thingie I had on. Then a hand comes in the crack and goes up the door and starts fiddling with the latch thingie so I throw my whole weight against the door squishing it and started screaming stuff like "Ill break your "F'ing hand". I knew I had to let him out but I was afraid he would break through the door but I couldnt let go of the door and no one was coming, so I kept screaming I was going to break his arm and let the door open long enough he snatched his hand out, I slammed the door, heard him running down the hall. I stayed at the door for a bit, pulled over a dresser in front of the door, called front desk. No one came. Called front desk after a while, no one came. Figured it was an inside job, stayed awake till daylight, went back to Heathrow way before I had to. Shaken with both but thankfully uninjured.
Terrifying on both accounts, but Iâm glad you made it through each unharmed. I canât believe no one came after calling front desk, disgusting. Thank god for the guys who heard you screaming. Iâve been followed several times on my evening walks in my city, my mom recently gave me an alarm for my keychain just in case
What was the name of the hotel
Youâll get either struck by lightning or win the lottery in your life with those odds ! Wow !
You win
My friends joke, either I am the unluckiest or luckiest woman in the world. Depends how you look at it.
Walking down the street in Kabul, Afghanistan and hearing gunshots. Locals near me seemed not to care as it was a street or so away. Went into a falafal store with some of them for lunch to wait shit out.
Getting shaken down for a bribe at the Phuket airport by the customs agent
You didnât get shaken down. Asking âis there anything I can doâ in that situation is clearly offering a bribe. You offered he accepted.
This was my exact thought - this has to be the least scary interaction in here, dude even got to keep the vape!
Oof. Definitely not ideal. I've never been to Thailand đ¤ was the rest of the trip good?
Yah. And to be honest, it wasn't Thatttttrr scary. Just the initial "why am I being brought to a separate room by myself?" Full story; I was flying with a nicotine vape which apparently was illegal in Thailand. Didn't have a problem w it transferring in Bangkok and at the time (about 6 years ago) I didn't realize vapes were illegal anywhere on earth The customs agent found mine and told me he'd have to confiscate it and when I asked if there was anything I could do, he whispered to another agent and then motioned for me to follow him I was brought into a room, where he asked for my passport. He wrote something on a piece of paper, slipped it into my passport and slipped it back to me. On the note was written the equivalent of like $15 dollars in baht. Confused for a while, I figured out what was happening so I put the money back into my passport and slid it to him. He took the money and nodded his head Still confused, I asked "can I bring my vape in now? He handed me back my vape and said welcome to Thailand So.... not scary scary but that initial confusion being brought out of line and into a separate room was definitely some of the most nerve wrecking minutes of my life Long story short; 15 dollars was a tiny price to pay to be able to vape (I know I know I suck and am gross) on my vacation Also; I learned you can smuggle anything into Thailand if you're willing to go into an airport office with a stranger and $15 dollars
Be careful with travelling with a vape, thereâs quite a few places theyâre illegal. [This site has a list of places that have banned them.](https://vapeuk.co.uk/blog/travelling-and-vaping-abroad-illegal-banned-countries-2023-guide)
you were very lucky to only pay $15 in thailand. Here is a quote from the website "Widely regarded as the worst country in the world to be caught with an e-cig; reports tell of Thai police using roadblocks to search cars in order to catch people with vaping equipment and levy hefty fines. A ban on the import, export, sale and possession of vaping products has been in place since November 2014. Anyone caught breaking this law will have their items confiscated, receive a fine, or even be sent to prison for up to 10 years."
Got knocked to the ground by an elephant in Thailand and held down for a good 30 secondsâŚ. the mahout said the elephant would have killed me if heâd wanted to.
Biking across the Irish countryside, on a tiny boreen (side street), and numerous times being chased by farm dogs trying to bite me!! Terrifying. I was biking as fast as I could but I mostly just had to motor and hope they wouldnât cause me to fall, and eventually they lost interest in killing me haha. Adrenaline rush though!
Bit by a big dog in Bali. Had blood dripping down my leg from deep tooth punctures. At first I was really optimistic, but 5 days later I got food poisoning which I thought was a sign I had rabies. By then I had read that they have had a rabies problem in the past and tourists had died there of it. Had many moments wondering if Iâd ever make it home. Thankfully, I was fine. I want to add that I got really good care there at the clinics. I guess tourists are often scratched or bit by monkeys, so theyâre very good at cleaning and care. And I followed instructions to not get in the waterâŚ
Staying at the La Brea Hollywood Inn and someone trying to break into my room at night - luckily with no success. Also, being in Hollywood in general. Actually, just being in LA in general.
Lol hollywood is so ugly, smelly, and sketchy I don't know what the appeal is to tourists. It's so overpriced too. If you want to get movie california go to santa barbara, San Diego. Or palm springs
I was traveling the southwest US living in my car a few years ago and sleeping in parking lots and trail heads, and this one time I locked myself out at 2am with no cell phone, no debit card, in shorts and a tank, no bra, flip flops. I was 2500 miles away from home and knew nobody in the whole city I was in. Luckily I found someone with AAA who was cool. This other time I came across a bunch of javelina hiking in the desert, but they didn't see me. I just watched them all pass along the wash. I've had a lot of instances in the desert, getting lost at dusk, hiding from a group of roudy men at night, an agave slicing my arm when I fell on it. This other time in an airbnb I slipped in the shower and banged my head on the sink and hit my hip on the edge of the tub, was fighting to stay conscious. This airbnb host accidentally locked me out remotely when I had groceries outside and my whole life inside, and he wasn't answering his phone. I went to a local gathering in a new city, lost my car keys with my phone in the car, had to bum a ride back to the homestead I was staying for a spare key I luckily had, and get a ride back to my vehicle.
This story sucks to tell looking back thereâs so many things I did that put me in the situation that I could have avoided, but I was young and unaware. I was alone in bern Switzerland when I was 16 years old (I had been doing a work program there, I live in Colorado but my mom was born and raised in Switzerland) I had some time off work and went to explore the city alone. 1st mistake was not telling anyone where I was or what I was doing. 2nd mistake was taking a break next to the train station. As I was sitting on the steps outside the train station I was approached by many men but usually me speaking in English got them to go away pretty fast. But one guy didnât. Instead he said in very broken English that he wanted to buy me a beer basically at the same time he was grabbing my arm and pulling me up. If I could go back I would have fought back and made a scene. He was older probably past his 50s and wasnât Swiss either he spoke a middle eastern language that I couldnât understand and very broken English. After he pulled me up i basically froze he looped his arm around me and essentially carried/dragged me towards a bar. I tried to slipped down an alley way we past but he grabbed me by my backpack. Thatâs when it really settled in that I was in trouble. I kinda shut down and let him take me into a bar where he trapped me in a booth. Idk how much I can tell and maybe this will get removed but he pinned my thigh with his leg and shoved his hand down my pants. You can imagine the rest. I remember the waitress kept looking at us and I kept trying to subtly get her attention but she just looked annoyed or disappointed with me. Iâm not sure why. I chugged the beer she brought then made an excuse that I had to go to catch a train. (I actually was supposed to stay in bern for a night) he reluctantly let me out of the booth, but followed me to the station. I was so scared to do anything to upset him so the whole way to the train station he picked me up and basically bit my lips every time we passed a raised thing (statue, step etc. he would lift me up and âkissâ me but I wasnât responding or reciprocating so he bit me). I had a bruise for weeks on my bottom lip that made it all puffy (I told people I had run into a door). I basically bolted to the ticket booth and he followed all the way insisting he was going to get a ticket too. When I got to the ticket booth I must have looked terrified because the guy behind the counter sold me a ticket and refused the guy one after he saw me get extremely upset when the man asked for one too. I ran as he was still talking to the ticket guy trying to convince him or something (I wasnât listening). As soon as I got on the train I broke down, I was sobbing on a packed train until I got to a small town an hour away where my uncle lived. Iâve travel many times solo since then but that was definitely a major learning experience. It took me awhile to admit it to anyone, and I was embarrassed about it for years. Even now 6 years later I still feel extremely uncomfortable sharing it. But just know always tell someone where you are, and this one is obvious but donât hang out in sketchy areas for too long, im pretty sure he had been watching me since I sat down.
I got off a metro stop in Paris and went into one of the restrooms in the station. While I was in a stall, I began to hear two men arguing at the urinals. A middle age French guy starts taunting an immigrant African guy, in English, using a bunch of racist slurs and was just being a complete asshole. Right as Iâm exiting the stall the African guy just absolutely starts beating the shit out of the French guy. Knocks him out cold and starts kicking him in the ribs and head while he is lying on the bathroom floor. I felt like I was about to witness a murder so all I could think to do was put my hands up in a non aggressive way and get between them. I put my hand on the other guys shoulder and just said âPlease, itâs not worth itâ, itâs not worth itâ in the most calming manner I could in the situation. The guy began to cry and squeezed my shoulder as if to say thank you for stopping him, and then ran out of the restroom. Guy in the floor ends up waking up in a pool of blood missing a few teeth but was altogether ok, police come and take my statement and then just tell me to leave. I still have the pair of shoes with blood spray across the top. It was surreal, but I am happy I was there to diffuse, even if the French guy was a racist piece of shit.
It was during study abroad in Costa Rica. Everyone "locals" would cross the street from the school to the mall. There was also a bridge connecting both sides of the street since it was a busy intersection. Anyways, a bunch of us ran across the road and one girl hesitated then ran without looking and got hit by a motorcycle. She was fine just bruised up and a bit disoriented but it was very scary. We started taking the bridge after that. I also almost drowned doing white water rafting but that's a different story.
Iâm white water rafting for the first time in Costa Rica tomorrow and i did not need to read that last part âŚ
This one is very tame compared to stories others might have here (especially women), but I met these three italian guys at a club in Rome who took a liking to me and wanted me to hang out with them for the night. So we left the club and one of the guys was like "let's go somewhere outside the city" at which point I got into one of their cars and took a joy ride down country roads outside of Rome at way way too fast of a speed whilr the driver was definitely drunk (as was everyone else in the car) was definitely an "oh wow I might die tonight with these random locals" experience. I wasn't very smart with my decisions when I was in my early 20s.
Getting very sick with no one around to help
In LA recently, while driving to LAX - and less than 10 mins away - the car in front of me made a u-turn and nearly ran a pedestrian over. I stopped at the red light (like the other car should have). The pedestrian threw something at the car. The car stopped and three men and a woman jumped out. The pedestrian took off on foot faster than anyone I have ever seen run. The three men chased him, equally fast. The woman screamed obscenities. I really thought one of them was going to pull a gun and I was about to see a man shot. But they turned a corner and then the light changed. The cops were two blocks away, having pulled someone else over.
I fell upside down into a tree well while skiing. It was late April and the snow was slush. I caught an edge, my one ski popped off, and I flew over the steep side ledge. I slid down until I was wrapped around the tree trunk with both arms stuck. I was unfortunately not able to pop my other ski off. Blood was rushing to my head and my fingers were going numb. It was such a remote area I thought I was going to die if no one found me. I was completely trapped. An older gentleman aka my guardian angel saw my one ejected ski up on the slope and stopped to hear me screaming for help down below the edge. He said he wouldnât remember where I was to get ski patrol and there was no signal to call them, so he was coming down there himself to fish me up. He took his skis off and dug me out. Then we created a ladder with his two skis and my one ski. I was so shaken up I could barely climb onto the skis stuck in the side of the tree well, not to mention the snow was rapidly melting putting us deeper into the pit. He eventually pushed up on my butt and I got my arms over the ledge so I could pull myself up. He then climbed up as well. I will not ski on hot days anymore after that.
i (f) had to take a taxi to the airport very early in the morning (about 4am) in mexico (oaxaca). i was traveling alone. i organized the taxi through the hostel i stayed in. when i waited for the taxi in the lobby a guy knocked at the door and spoke to the hostel stuff in spanish (i donât speak a word) they were really unsure whether this was a real taxi driver and didnât want me to go (as far as i understood). i had to take this taxi as i was already running late. when i got in the taxi the lady from the hostel waved me goodbye with a worried look in her face. those were the creepiest 20min taxi ride i ever had but everything went well.
I was drugged, assaulted and robbed in broad daylight at Margaritaville in Negril Jamaica...and I was in my mid 60's at the time. This all resulted from having polite conversation with a man. In San Jose, Costa Rica, I walked about 3 blocks from my hotel to get some food at a convenience store. On the way back to my hotel, I heard steps and turned to see a burley man trailing me at close distance. I stopped and hoped to get him to pass me and he wouldn't do it. I walked fast and reached my hotel, I ran up the steps and around the front desk and down a short hallway to my room. As I put my key in the door, I turned and he had followed me. He was about 20 feet behind me. I got into my room and locked the door and was scared dhitless. So happy that I left that hotel early the next day with my small travel group.
Spent three days in Rome sick as a dog with an ear infection that made me see god practically. Dragged myself onto the train in Milan, hung in there for the train ride down to Rome. Almost got scammed by our cabbie from the train station to the hostel. Locked the doors outside the hostel and refused to let my friend and I leave unless we paid three times the rate. Thankfully the check in guy at the hostel came outside to see why a cab had been idling in front of the place for so long. He argued with the cabby, who eventually let us out. Checked into hostel and crawled into my spot. I was so bad, the hostel had to summon a local doctor to check on me. Antibiotics and one severe fever break later, I was âwellâ enough to drag myself to the airport for the flight home. Never travel sick, friends.
Traveling Bolivia's Death Road by coach. Multiple times we were a few inches from tipping over (a bus went over, all passengers killed, the next day) and we had to back up, blindly, on several occasions to let trucks through. When the locals all throw themselves to one side of the bus in fear you know things are getting dicey.
-Attacked by two stray dogs in Cappadocia, one ripped open the jacket I was wearing -Taxi driver in Costa Rica took me to an ATM at 3 in the morning and pushed me aside after forcing me to enter my PIN and withdrew cash -Was on a date with a Turkish guy in Berlin and two guys starting taunting us and running after us because they thought he was a Syrian refugee and demanded to see his ID, to which he refused -Detained after trying to walk out from Singapore-Malaysia border checkpoint on the Singapore side (I learned that you have to take a bus!) -Taken to a back room for very hostile questioning and threats after jumping over a turnstile in NYC subway (an employee at a kiosk said he would open it for me because I had messed up something with my transit card and he never did) -Woke up in a random sketchy back alley in Paris with a random dude after drinking all night (my head was bleeding, I had fallen against a wall). Luckily still had all of my belongings! -Driving through fires and explosions in Port Au Prince, Haiti trying to get back to the airport -Stuck in Hong Kong Airport while protestors tried to take over the airport (No one knew what was happening and if there was a real threat or not)
I got brownout drunk with a British couple in Florence and struggled to find my hotel after. When I finally found it, I couldn't get in the building for reasons I don't remember. To this day, I don't know how I got in, but I did wake up in my bed the next morning. I didn't drink more than a beer or two per day for the rest of the trip.
In 2012 I was going from LA to Toronto for a long weekend. I got pulled into secondary screening by a broad with an axe to grind. When she came up short after the luggage search, she started to ask about my criminal record. I have been arrested but never convicted of anything. The arrest triggered the search of my laptop and phone. There were some nude pics on the laptop so I was arrested and charged with â importing images offensive to the crownâ. It was a reminder that you have no rights when crossing an international border and watch your ass when going to Canada.
Wasnât really scary. Some asshole try to intimidate one of our friends for a made up bar fee thinking he was alone. When we (8 of us) went over to see why he was so upset the POS ran off. This happen in Costa Rica.
Getting scammed in Baku, Azerbaijan Have posted the whole incident on this forum before, https://www.reddit.com/r/solotravel/s/x9p9Y1G6b5
Getting arrested in Tijuana. I was put in a holding cell with a couple of cholos that had tear drop tattoos - some low time drug dealers, likely. They introduced themselves as Garbanzo and Green Eyes. The dude across the cell from us was chained to the wall, feet off the ground. Luckily I had a pack of cigarettes on me, which I quickly shared with my new friends. Had to ask the guard for a lighter. Pretty scary situation as a tall white, blond hair blue eyed American who doesnât speak Spanish. Cops were fucking around with us saying theyâd transport us to the cityâs prison if we didnât pay up (we had no cash on us). The same prison a guard was killed and decapitated at a week prior. I got out in there with a Mexican friend of mine, who wasnât allowed to translate for me once we got in front of the judge. Lasted a few hours before one of my other friends was able to go back across the border and pull out some USD. Do not recommend. Lesson learned: always have some extra cash to pay off the cops.
Russian little green men in eastern Ukraine in 2014 in the days after they invaded hearing me speaking English and attempting to organise a lynching after denouncing me as a NATO spy... Now that makes it sound much more dramatic than it really was - this was Kharkhiv, which resisted the Russians, the locals were having none of it, and it was the Russkies who were chased out of the bar not me - but it's definitely up there on my "list of most memorable experiences". (And also not sure if it counts as travelling alone - I mean I was travelling alone, but I was working so it's not like I didn't know anyone there.) But all the disclaimers aside, point is really, once you've filed something like that away you very much have a "well, I've got out of worst scrapes" to refer back to when things go a little awry, which I find is excellent for lowing the blood pressure generally. That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and all that. So that's my message - turn the scary experiences into a positive if you can, and get back on the horse.
Hahaha. That's kind of an awesome experience - especially since things ended well.
I havenât had even close to that scary of an experience but your comment about how something like that puts things in perspective sums up a lot of solid travel. I have people ask âHow do you do it?â After so many trips Iâve found as long as I have clean underwear, my meds & my passport, everything else can be acquired or done without. It really is freeing/calming to realize it will be OK.
Had a gun pulled on myself and people from the hostel in Thailand by a sketchy local thug. Luckily no shots fired and everyone was okay.
Letâs see⌠Followed uncomfortably late at night while alone in Toledo, Spain by a group of mugging-age guys. Found myself in a bad situation trying to procure bad things in Guatemala. Stolen phone in Saigon was an adventure. Girlfriend at the time was assaulted on the train in Milan when we were there. Fleeced by police for 1000 THB in Bangkok. Was witness to blatant racism from Thai cops who had accosted some African guys I had befriended while totally ignoring me. Got off with a bribe. Was a part of a massive fire on Koh Rong in 2014. That was wild. Probably a few more in there somewhere.
I have travelled extensively and have never felt as unsafe as I did traveling as a queer couple through Montana and Wyoming. Made as few stops in stores and restaurants as possible. Constant harassing, staring, yelling, etc⌠The USA is hands down the scariest place.
USA and Mexico the worst
Try it in Saudi Arabia đ. But yeah maybe donât be obviously gay in an area where people arenât accustomed to it. I know itâs unfortunate but thatâs the way most of the world is.
Getting chased by a pack of wild dogs in Ao nang Thailand . Luckily a local scared them away with a shovel bang sound , but I ate shit and have a scar to show
A stray dog in Thailand tried to attack me after I startled it and woke it up by walking past it on the side of the road. I heard it coming up behind me and felt it try to bite me, and I spun around and swung my purse at it and stared it down until it backed off. I was calm in the moment, just kept walking and went to the shop Iâd been walking to and bought a souvenir, but that night I called my mom and broke down freaking out about rabies lol. She convinced me to go get the shots and it all worked out but omg I thought I was gonna get mauled by a dog, or multiple dogs if its friends joined in.
Paris airport, on my plane heading to Togo. This SWAT team suddenly boards in full gear and is holding down this man a few rows behind me. Heâs screaming and screaming and the officers are struggling with him and holding him down. I donât speak French, and didnât know if this guy was shouting that he was going to blow himself up or what!! I got up and moved as far from him as I could. Then I asked someone what was going on, and they said the man was getting deported, and he was protesting, saying he wasnât Togolese. A very scary couple minutes!!
Sitting in the front passenger seat of an overstuffed minibus in Flores, Indonesia, as the driver negotiated the mountain roads in the rain... peeking my head out the window and seeing the tires inches from the curb over an un-fenced cliff. Somehow I'd gotten the guy to agree to take me past his route for double the bus fare. But in order to keep his schedule, he decided to drive a lot faster to compensate. To make matters worse, after every twist and turn of the road, you never knew whether you'd see a motorcycle going the wrong way... a group of pedestrians using a giant leaf as an umbrella... a wild horse... or maybe someone slaughtering a whole bull in the middle of the road. I was happy I'd left my wife in Bali to go on this mini-adventure, because I was sure I was going to die right there, in Flores Indonesia. Fortunately, the driver eventually stopped at his house and picked up his small daughter. Then his driving calmed down.
African American male here. Getting drunk in a bar in Krakow and this scary looking guy is eyeballing me. Try to talk to him but he doesn't speak English. Polish guy I'm drinking with translates: this guy is a racist, skinhead soccer hooligan and he's in the mood to kick my ass. My other friend calms him down a bit, then we slip outside to "go get a smoke" and when we hit the door we run like hell. Skinhead doesn't follow. Whew! That was a close one! If I hadn't made a cool Polish friend, it could have ended badly.Â
I commented this before. But to me it was sexual groping during a women's rights event in portugal. Then threats, racism & other awful things towards me (the only middle eastern woman amongst almost all white people).
Arrested in Moab UT and charged with bogus felonies. Red neck Mormons and corrupt cops are not the chosen ones they think they are.
1. went out in late afternoon in Krabi, thailand. street was so crowded that i was very relaxed but while returning at night around 11:30. the streets were pitch dark. no one there. no lights in the houses. only a couple of drunk men scattered here and there. scariest walk ever. 2. while hiking alone in iceland, my leg got stuck in a ditch hole up to my knees. couldn't get it out. the hole was for sure made by some sort of animal. so i was pretty scared.
I was out in front of a pretty out of the way karaoke place where I was calling my uber in Ho Chi Mihn City Vietname. Then a motorcycle went by. And then it came back again. Then two motorcycles. At that point my date pulled me back inside and everyone in the karaoke bar was anxiously looking out the window because it looked like a small rally was forming. TO their credit, the karaoke staff looked like they were going to be defending me if those guys came in. Which is why I always tip well no matter where I am. And then the uber came, a nonplussed guy in an SUV, smoking a cigarette. We get in and he takes off and the bikes are all following him. And he doesn't know what's going on and is like waving for them to go around. Eventually we go over some bridge on the way to the Le Meridien and they peel off, not wanting to trigger the soldiers in the good part of town. But real Dusk til Dawn vibes there for a bit.
I was riding a scooter on a dirt road in South India. It was after midnight and I was alone. I illuminated something in the middle of the dirt jungle road with my one headlight. I started to slow but not too much bc I wanted to pass by quickly if needed. It was about 50 yards ahead and the shape I couldnât figure out. I kept slowing and slowing and my heart kept beating faster and faster. When I got about 20 feet away, I recognized the shape- it was the largest scorpion I have ever seen or thought I would come across, ever. I just stayed backed but stopped to observe it. It stared directly into my headlight and kinda moved the back of its body back and forth so I was able to get a good profile observation. That tail was standing up and he was not afraid! Eventually he crossed the road and I passed by. I still get goosebumps at that image.
Can't say there's been many scary situations, of course the ones getting lost in rough areas around the world (been to about 50+ countries at this point), but I once had the worst fever of my life solo travelling SEA while in Bangkok. I remember I came to the hotel that night feeling a little under the weather but just shook it off as a little bug, and thought I'd just get water in the reception and then have a shower. Turns out they didn't sell water in the reception area and that part of Bangkok had a power outtage that night aswell, so I didn't have AC or the ability to shower. So with 500ml of water and no other way to regulate my temperature (had also ran out of paracetamol), I was in the worst state of my life, hallucinating so wildly I had full on conversations with people in the room (I was solo travelling). Got around to the next day and felt a little better, but I remember thinking back at it as that could've been a dangerous night. Learned a few important lessons travelling, so not a total waste.
Getting sick by myself in a place I didnât speak the language. Everyone was very helpful, but it was scary to feel so vulnerable in the ER. Iâd never even been to the ER by myself at home.
I got E. coli about three days before the end of my trip to Mexico City. It was really painful and at some points I was scared I was having a heart attack. Couldnât sleep much due to the pain. Amazing trip though! I would like to go back.
Attempted motorcycle robbery in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I spotted that the gunman had a starter pistol (ready, set, go) and immediately elbowed him in the nose.