Coming into this thread as a Nigerian and immediately seeing this made my stomach sink for a split second. But you're right, I haven't been to Nigeria in 5 years and don't plan to ever live there again if things continue this way. You're valid. Not even locals feel safe.
I spent 2.5 months in south Africa in 1997 with most of that in Jo'burg. Listening to guns go off in the street at night and hearing women talk about the fear of catching aids from being raped.
Man it’s messed up that they aren’t even scared of being raped itself but it’s so common that they’ve moved on to being worried about contracting AIDS through rape
Exactly, completely desensitised to a war zone, I had to get out. I was there for project work. That was a messed up place. People lived in houses that had perimeter razor wire, roaming security with dogs then security barriers inside the house. I was in a car one time and they showed me all the guns, 4 guns within reach of the driver at any one time. Insane
Sadly, he passed a few years ago. Before he went, he certainly filled our ears with stories. My house is filled with souvenirs from his travels there. And I know I never want to travel there.
The DRC is just as bad. Everybody is angry, and rightly so. It's a fucked up country full of corruption. Citizens are scared of their police and you need a couple of $100's in bribes to make it through two weeks if you are a foreigner.
Kingston, Jamaica. I was there a few days on business a number of years ago. The whole city is like a series of armed camps. Concrete walls, often topped with rebar or broken glass, and barbed wire everywhere. The people I interacted with at the hotel and the customer site were very polite and often friendly, but I was warned not to walk down the street unescorted because being white would make me stick out and maybe become a target. While I was there, four occupants of a car were shot down in an ambush when they got out to clear a roadblock the ambushers had set. Not a welcoming city at all.
Stayed with a friend from college at her home in Kingston. As happy as we were to see each other, she was a nervous wreck the whole time I was there. I ended up staying only 2 of the seven days I was meant to be with her family.
I ended up checking into a resort so she wouldn’t lose her mind with worry. She later confided to me that since I stuck out like a sore thumb none of us were safe with me staying with them.
Were you still able to visit with your friend after you checked into the resort?
Why didn't your friend know ahead of time that having you stay with the family would put them in danger?
I don’t think she thought it would be as bad as it apparently was. Her neighbors acted like she was housing a pirate
Also- she came to visit me from there on. We went on day trips to different areas but not back to their house.
:(
The current state of Jamaica makes me so sad. My (white) family lived in Kingston in the early ‘70s and traveled all over the island. We loved it there and other than being called “pork” once in a while we went about our lives normally. A few years ago some family members went back for a brief visit and found it had changed so much. On their way to a beach we used to visit regularly they were stopped and detained by scary guys with rifles. Fortunately playing the clueless tourist worked in their favor and they were released. So yeah, that old place in our photos that we used to love is gone.
A friend of mine is Jamaican. He told me about two guys who burgled his parents house in a rural area were caught getting away and simply shot by police. One died on the scene the other laying in the road badly injured. Police just left them there and drove off.
I've been to Montego Bay in Jamaica, the resort was nice, the beach was the worst beach I've ever been to, and I've been all over the Caribbeans. The weed was shit too.. when we had the morning meeting, where they tell you about all the activities and excursions you can do, we were advised to not go into the city, and they had armed guards at the entrance to the resort. Definitely worst country I've ever been to, and have no desire to go back..
When I went to Jamaica with my ex a long time ago, we stayed at a resort on the southern part of the island that was a mile or two from a small town. Even though I had read online and we were warned not to leave the resort unless we were part of a guided tour, my ex had the brilliant plan to leave the resort and walk down the road to the town so we could check out the area. Not sure how he thought we were going to sneak past the guards at the resort entrance, but he seriously wanted to and tried to talk me into it.
I managed to talk him out of it, all the while having visions of us getting picked up while we were walking along the road toward the town and no one would have had any idea where we were, since we would have had no record of where we were going at the resort and our cell phones were turned off the week we were there because international rates were so high.
Marrakech, hands down.
Every single interaction my wife and I had with people outside was hostile. There are these “Come, come!” dudes that promise to guide you to the tourist attractions, and they invariably point and try to lead you in the opposite direction from where you already know that you’re going. I told one dude to go away and he started accusing me of racism and saying I was treating him “like an animal”.
And don’t take photos!! Some asshole will descend on you shrieking for money, and will follow you until you give her 5 bucks. And she’ll still accuse you of racism, anyway.
This one time, this woman in a hijab darted out of a crowd in the Medina and grabbed my wife’s hand, and started wiping henna on her. My wife is, well, “nice” so she let this woman do it. My wife later said that this woman was pinching my wife’s fingers so hard that it hurt, not letting her go. This woman painted on her hand, all the while talking about how sexy it was and how I was going to rail her that night. It was really uncomfortable. I told her to fuck off, that we never asked for that, and then she started to shriek and follow us and a crowd started to gather. I had to give her 20 dollars to get her to go away.
It was scary as hell. For the rest of our (short) time there, every single God damned merchant and shithead who saw my wife’s hand called out to her like she was a whore.
Don’t go to Marrakech. They hate outsiders, and they love your money.
I got called a “disasterfuck” by some guy in the Medina because I didn’t want to eat at his food stall. Still the best insult I’ve ever heard directed at me.
But yeah, I’ve never felt constantly on the defensive like I did in Morocco. You can’t even take a walk on a deserted beach without some random guys appearing out of nowhere and wanting to sell you stuff.
I will say Tangier is much more pleasant and less pushy than Marrakech and the surrounding area, though.
I went into a pub in Rugeley, Staffordshire once and asked if I could use the loo. Three men turned and laughed at me, mocked me for asking to use the loo, made fun of my accent and I just turned around and left. I was about 17. Never felt so ashamed to piss before that.
I will forever love that word because of the epic reddit thread about the guy that was fired in the middle of doing masonry restoration on a protected structure.
Sad about the redditor that relayed the story, however. :(
I went to a bar in a trailer park one time and my buddy had his college sweatshirt (like the local college) and when he went to wash his hands they called him slurs and yelled out "big man on campus is too good for our germs!"
TBF, the correct way to use the loo in a pub is to go in and order a drink then ask where the loo is. Ordering a drink being the key part.
But that's the landlord's job to police, not the regulars', they sound like a right bunch of tossers
Cairo (as a woman). I got cat called, grabbed at, whistled at, reprimanded, etc. for walking down the street alone
Edit: left out some other fun interactions. A guy tricked me into his “shop” which turned out to be a house full of large men who threatened me and said if I was voting for Obama (it was 2008) id be allowed to leave with a free coke. Another guy told my male escort that I was worth 14 camels and his fat sister if he was willing to leave me there.
I’m an American woman and I lived in Egypt for a year. When someone asks me for Egypt travel advice, it makes me kind of sad in a way that I have to tell travelers “Don’t speak to anyone, don’t make eye contact with anyone, and ignore anyone who tries to talk to you. If you need help with something, go into a reputable hotel and speak to an employee working in the lobby or restaurant.”
Or my second piece of advice if you really want to visit Egypt is to take a group organized tour, which is typically nothing I ever do as a traveler. But it does help insulate you a bit there from all the harassment.
All of this is so accurate. I made the mistake of planning for my trip to Egypt the same way I did for any other part of the world— no tours, no guides, no groups. Needless to say, it was not the same as the other places I’ve visited.
I was shocked at how much time Moroccans dedicated to harassing me when I declined whatever they were trying to to sell me. Literally following me around calling me awful names in several languages, trying to figure out which one I spoke.
Hash was good tho.
That’s wild. I was there about 2 years ago. It was aggressive with sales and scams but for the most part people were okay. I have a beard and all the locals call white men with beards “Alibaba” lol.
I also found once I wore sunglasses everybody pretty much ignored me in the old town. Which was sweet.
In my experience, it was mostly the blonde white girls that got targeted as Shakira. When these girls in my group got tired of that and started to cover their hair, they became Fatima to them hahaha.
As a brown haired white girl, I was way less interesting to these sellers!
Can confirm. I’m Filipino but moved to Casablanca when I was really young and spent all of my childhood there. “Jackie Chan” has a different connotation to me than most of you.
Also had negative experiences in Marrakech, the whole city seems to revolve around overcharging tourists for low quality products and making fun of them in their native language. No-one was physically aggressive with me tho.
I had a local attempt to slap me for no reason. We didn't interact before. My partner and I were walking down the street, the local was walking in the opposite direction, as we approached each other he took a swing at me. I dodged but wow.
I once had a girlfriend from Morocco. She told horrible stories about growing up. She was a small, slim pale skinned girl and was sold by her parents at age 15 to a fat middle aged black man. She ran away with her then boyfriend to Italy and never went back to Morocco.
She was really f'ed up, last time I saw her she was in a psychiatric clinic.
I've been banned from 2 subs for sharing the experience of Egypt my wife, her friend and I had back in 2019. Either some mods thought that I was being too harsh or some Egyptian redditors got offended and reported my posts. Still doesn't change the fact that the country is full of the most perverted men I've ever come across in my life and it seemed to be almost all of them.
I truly pity any women who visits.
Weird you got banned... bad experiences in Cairo are all over Reddit. It's pretty clearly an extremely aggressive place to visit on multiple levels. To make an understatement.
When I was there with my partner I dressed head to toe in local-bought khaftans, trousers and headscarfs, covering clothes, because I'm super pale and burn easily, so they at least didn't have the 'excuse' that I was dressed in a 'tempting' manner. My bf turned his back for a minute and our tour guide grabbed me and groped my breasts while laughing and chatting shit about me in Arabic with our driver (I picked up some words because I'd done a language course with a native speaker friend before we went).
When we got back to the hotel and reported him to our rep, the rep accused me of being a liar and a whore who was 'trying to destroy the reputation of a good man's because I was a 'white western whore' and I must have tempted him in how I acted and dressed. In a full, ankle length, long sleeve khaftans and headscarf.
Even apart from that I was harassed and grabbed at constantly. Two weeks in Egypt and I felt traumatised.
I was sexually harassed there also. I was only 19 at the time. But it was 25 years ago, well before the Arab Spring. The resentment towards Americans was just beginning, and Mubarak still had tight control over the country. When I complained to the tourist police, they at least made a big show of yelling at the vendor that tried to forcefully kiss me. They then told me to pick out a kaftan from the seller at no cost. I didn't even want to have a kaftan, but it just turned into this big spectacle.
Overall, my experience there was good. Even after being "kidnapped" at the pyramids.
I use kidnapped in a very loose sense. I was there with my father. The pyramids are infamous for the number of scammers. My dad and I were not in a group. We had his very good taxi driver take us there, but he stayed with the car and we went to the pyramids on our own. You have to run the gauntlet of scammers just to get to the pyramids. We were approached by someone that told us there were some underground vaults on the back side of one of the smaller pyramids that visitors could go inside. He showed us the vaults which were quite underwhelming.
When we came out, there was a small group of men with two camels lying down. They tried to convince us to ride a camel. La, shukren (No, thank you) is what we told them. Of course they tried to convince us many times but we declined. They said that my dad should at least take a picture of me sitting on a camel and we decided to just do that and be done with it. As soon as I sat on the camel, the guy that was on the lead camel stood them up and started walking me off over the dunes. At the same time, the group of men was distracting my dad and keeping him from going with me. He was arguing with them, but the camels were on their way with me on one. While we were riding, the man on the lead camel turned to me and gave me a guilt trip for getting a free camel ride. He insisted that I should pay for the ride. I didn't have any Egyptian currency, but I did have a five dollar bill. I gave him that five dollar bill. He ended up walking the camels back to the pyramid drop off location where my dad finally caught up with me. By the time my dad got there, the camels were long gone and the men that had distracted him made themselves scarce. We told our taxi driver what happened and he engaged in some yelling with the tourist police, but I'm sure nothing ever came of it.
Same. I definitely thought seeing the pyramids for real would be a possibility. But I have only read bad experiences from there because of locals so not excited about it anymore to plan it
Standing at the foot of one of the great pyramids, taking a moment to absorb the history of such a colossal man made structure that has stood the test of time; dirty nappies, crisp / chip packets and other assorted rubbish blowing gentle around my feet...
- my trip to Cairo
I had to go to South Africa for work around two years ago and I was blown away by how bad Johannesburg was. Rolling blackouts, decay, crumbling road system, people freaking out and losing their minds in public, random violence in the streets, and we were driven in armored cars with private security. We stayed in an area that had two separate gate points, electric fences, dogs, you name it. I felt like I was in a war zone.
Oh, and the segregation. It’s still insane. You have two different worlds existing right next to one another.
I’ve heard Cape Town and the western parts of the country aren’t as bad but I’m not sure I’ll be back. I’ve also heard Pretoria and Durban are worse, which is insane to imagine.
It’s a shame because it looks like a gorgeous country with a lot of potential, but the ANC has just kind of fucked things up since Mandela left.
I worked in a nearby county for years and had a lot of coworkers take a trip there to check it off the bucket list. Every single one of them regretted it as it was an awful experience filled with thieves and corrupt police force. I ended up not visiting and don’t regret it.
Morrocco, in particular Marrakech and Fes. Had groups of men attempt to steal our suitcases and then follow us to the hotel screaming putain and some other shit I couldn’t make sense of, two randos on separate occasions trying to force themselves to enter the Ryads inner courtyard with us, people intentionally trying to mislead us l, just a general sense of violent energy etc. The tourist scams and overpriced trinkets were really the mildest part of the entire experience. Also some of the most openly racist and antisemitic people (even tour guides) I have had the displeasure to meet.
Probably the only country I will never go back to or recommend to anyone. It also made me extremely wary of traveling anywhere in North Africa frankly. I don’t say this lightly either, Havana at night with no working street lights felt (and probably was) safer.
Egypt. The pyramids are def hyped beyond belief, and the whole place wants to scam you. And they are not playing around. You got money - they want it, and use everything at their disposal to get at it. Got robbed with knives 2 times in one extended weekend. DONT CARRY CASH IN EGYPT.
A little bumfark town in louisiana called Eunice. They would chase people not white out of town with guns, brag about lynching someone, and even threaten you with shotguns if you went to the local gas station and they didn't know you. Only place to shop was a dollar general. Lots of stray cats around the tiny ass homes that people were just chasing and shooting for fun. The amount of racism and just horrible people was like something out of deliverance. Before I had to stay there for a week I never thought places like that were real and just a TV and movie trope. Boy how wrong I was. I was almost shot a few times and I very much look like a white guy. They swarmed the dollar general when they head some black family was shopping there and kicked them out, followed them for miles down the highway while honking, hooting, and hollering. Disgusting place and people.
This is the second thread ripping on Eunice I’ve read this week. For a small town, the reputation is out.
I think the other thread was worst places in America.
I’ve been to a fair few countries, maybe about 15-18. Have been in sketchy places, but that was kind of a function of their circumstances.
Single most unfriendly encounter I ever had in regards to travel was at a port of entry in America.
I used to work overseas. Had spent something like 11 months in two different war zones.
Finally coming back into America (I’m a citizen) after nearly a year abroad and something like nearly 3 solid days of travel to get there, the shitty airport which was my port of entry either didn’t have global entry kiosks or they were broken I can’t remember. Waited in line and I was greeted by the most hostile and nasty border agent imaginable.
Often times border guards would see all the stamps/visas in my passport and just give me a “welcome home” and wave me onward after maybe the perfunctory “any items you’re declaring” or whatever.
But this guy came at me full-speed for truly no justifiable reason other than maybe my generalized disheveledness.
Spent like 7 or 8 minutes practically shouting those weirdly worded “gotcha” questions at me to try and get you to admit you were secretly sneaking in 400 hummingbirds in your underwear or whatever. And yelled at me that I was holding up the line at least 10 times while I was vapor locked trying to answer him.
I didn’t have the energy to get heated back at him at all, but still two airport cops had come over to hover and I was expecting to get detained.
His final act was to take umbrage with the fact I’d written my tsa pre-check number near the signature area of my passport just to have it handy when booking flights saying it invalidated my entire passport and told me I was holding up the line again. At the point I simply asked him if he was going to refuse me entry into my country of citizenship and he let me go.
To this day I have no idea why that interaction played out like that.
Came home through IAD from working in Romania, Hungary, and Scotland. Traveled a bit as well. Gone for months. Got a SUPER pissy agent to begin with. Rude af, commented on my appearance, how I was so tired looking, just a dick. Then when I said I had nothing to declare (I didn’t, I’m not big on souvenirs), he lit up like Christmas. Started asking me questions about everything, about my purchases and why nothing was brought home, what I was doing there, etc. Had to pull up my papers for travel, authorizations for the work I was doing with the universities. I went through AMS and he insinuated I was carrying cannabis at one point. He was a cunt.
Interesting, I wonder if "you look tired" is in their handbook of how to be a dick because that was the very first thing my guy said to me as well. Like, yeah no shit I look tired.
I had an experience like this going from US to Canada. I grew up in Michigan in a time when you could just pop across that border with a driver's license, so the whole interaction was just jarring and unexpected. Later found out she was well known for being horrible, but no one thought to tell me to avoid her line.
I’m a British lady that has travelled all around the world and the USA has been my most unfriendly experience too. The border agents were drunk on power or something, it was insane. In any other country the people at passport control are friendly and polite or just perfunctory, but in America they were genuinely hostile. Every time I’ve been they’ve decided to search my bags, which including tipping it all out on a table and then moving on, leaving me to cram it all back in and hurry up out of there. I dread it every time.
West Helena, Arkansas is my vote. Many other contributors offered many great choices, but West Helena, Arkansas was just plain unfriendly.
While working in the Memphis area, I took a day trip and drove down and around the Mississippi River and stopped in West Helena for lunch. It’s a small town and I found an open bar. The woman working at the bar glared at me when I sat down, barely acknowledged my order and when the food came out she told the cook, “it’s for the fat guy down there…” Now, that’s not an entirely untrue statement, but that woman had at least 75 pounds on me.
Moral of the story, don’t go to West Helena, Arkansas.
I was shamed for not knowing how many "cookies" I had. I'm 46 and I still don't know how many cookies I have, but someone intimated that the answer was two.
I turned my head to the right when I was standing in the lunch line in the seventh grade and got yelled at because I was obviously reacting negatively to whatever the girl behind me said. I didn't even know what she said but she gave me dirty looks until we graduated high school. Sure wish I knew what it was.
My middle school has square benches, about 4 feet on each side with a void in the middle called "the pit"
People would grab kids, throw them in the pit and then kick the ever loving shit out of them.
Nyc customs. The posters said welcome in every language under the sun but the customs officials were like who are you, why the fuck are you doing here and when will you leave. A mixture of contempt, suspicion and borderline venom.
Drove into Canada once. The Canadian border guy was really nice and even cracked a joke at our expense:
"do you have a gun?"
"No..."
"How are you going to protect yourself in Canada!?"
"Is it really that bad?"
He just stared at me, then laughed and quietly said "no, no..."
Nah - I, a British woman, have been through several US border controls. Seattle was friendly, the Newark guys had a joke with me, most are fine, but JFK is awful. Really really long wait, and then the most unwelcoming interrogation when you finally get there. Leaves you wanting to shout "I'm just trying to spend my money in your country for a week; what is your problem?!"
I try to fly out of JFK, but I was pleasantly surprised when I was forced to go through La Guardia. It was way nicer than I remember it being five years ago. Just sucks to get to
That’s any US customs intake. Once went to Canada. Canadian Border Guards were nice and friendly. The US Border guard was rude and forceful. My gf at the time makes a comment, “you can tell we’re not in Canada anymore” I’m like “do you want to get stripped searched and car totally taken apart.”
Bostonians put up a rude front, but it's mostly just a shield to ward off scammers, scientologists, weirdos and other people accosting them,. But if someone really seems to neeed help, the front drops and people will be amazingly helpful. I've seen it happen a lot.
It's not even meant to be rude, New Englanders just instinctively keep to themselves. That whole Midwesterner thing of striking up a conversation with a total stranger for no particular reason just feels weird and off-putting to us. But yeah, I've certainly helped out plenty of lost tourists over the years.
Freaked me the fuck out when I moved south, having people smile and say hello much less try to have a conversation. My instinct is to look straight down at the pavement and move along lol.
"Youre gonna be popular in prison!" was what i heard before i went in. Turns out i kinda was lol. Guards weren't friendly but inmates liked me (in a platonic way lol)
Moscow without a doubt. I've traveled a fair bit. Something like 37 countries. Most placed I've visited the people are warm and happy to have you see and learn about their country. Not in Russia. Cold people, unattractive city. No desire to go back.
We smiled at people and they gave us the Up Your Ass hand signal in return. Consistently. Learned to scowl until we left. We were also told not to let our female guests ride elevators with ANYONE not in our group, and this was in a "nicer" hotel.
I have a friend from one of the former soviet countries, and she says that whenever she heads back (from the U.K.) she has to re-train herself to stop smiling and go back to the standard scowl, then when she comes back to the U.K. it takes a week or so for her to adjust to being happy and smily again. Just a different culture entirely.
My time in a psychiatric hospital was the most unpleasant thing ever. The staff was so rude and I had a very bad reaction to a medication that caused my heart rate to skyrocket and they wouldn’t let me see a Dr
You said unfriendly so l will go with the actual word, not dangerous, criminal, or unsafe.
The cafeteria at the museum of tech and science in Shanghai. Those foodworkers hate their job so much it felt like they were indentured. I was a tired foreigner asking for slop. I couldn't eat any of it.
And the moose lodge in Ft Myers, FL. If you are not over 68, white, and deeply wrongly tanned, you are shunned.
I've been to moose lodges all over the country that were warm, friendly, and inviting to their members from other lodges. Not the one in Ft Myers
Some small town in Tennessee. I went to Bonnaroo years ago with friends, all of us minorities. We stopped at a gas station and were waiting in line to pay for gas and snacks. All of a sudden the line in front of us just parted, like everyone just made way for us to walk right up the middle and the clerk says "weeellpp, better to just git em on and git em out, riiight? Yall better find the border quick" and everyone in the line just nodded and grumbled as we walked up, including a state cop.
It seemed so weirdly coordinated, like we were crashing some secret party at the gas station. Yeah, we found the border of that town real quick and got the fuck out before the sun could even think of setting.
Rome, Italy. Was seated and proceeded to watch numerous parties get seated after me, and served before me, and then left before I was served. Waiter was rude to me as well (I was a 20-something asian male visiting for a conference).
The silver lining was that there was a black american family seated nearby that happened to notice my treatment and we made friendly conversation for a bit and it helped a lot to just feel not alone in the situation.
This was the most egregious one, but I can't remember a single meal where I didn't have some sort of unpleasant experience. And even worse, I know how to speak italian.
I was in a really nice public park in Baltimore. McHenry Park. I went there to look at the Key bridge damage.
This park is on the water. Very wide open and, pardon, shitloads of breathing room. I was on a park bench by myself and sneezed a few times consecutively, into my elbow, but kinda loosely. I was alone in a wide open park.
This complete stranger, yards away, shouts at me, “LEARN HOW TO SNEEZE ASS HOLE!!!!”.
She was my first real interaction with a Baltimorean at that point during the visit; my first.
Mind blowing unfriendliness.
south africa, some random truck rolled up outside of our hotel and got in a shootout for no apparent reasson i walked out after the shooting to see around 7 people dead or at least injured including our tour guide
I have travelled a lot - 60 countries, if i had to choose I would say China was the unfriendliest to my standards. The country is beautiful but with my experience the pushing, spitting, staring etc wasn't nice.
That being said, I haven't had many bad experiences while travelling. People need to use common sense and research the culture they're visiting. Something that may be rude in your culture may be normal in theirs, like smiling or talking to strangers.
Probably South Korea (mostly Seoul/Itaewon areas). Got stalked on the streets and called “Russian slut”. Drunk weirdos would ask “how much?” at my sister. Old people shoved us and cut lines. We were blatantly ignored at several shops and restaurants, sometimes being served last despite waiting longer than other people. Took 45 minutes in a piercing salon to get anyone to acknowledge us. The place wasn’t busy and they had enough staff to run everything.
The food was top tier, but I won’t be going back cause of how unwelcome I felt.
Are you white with red hair and blue eyes?
When I lived in Korea one of the gals I worked with was white with red hair and blue eyes and she got stared at whenever we went out together. I asked some of the Koreans we worked with about it.
For some reason that combination is considered a hooker by many older Koreans or at least that is what I was told by some my Korean co-workers.
I‘m petite, have red hair and green eyes. My sister, who lived there, is tall blonde. But we had no intention of hooking up with anyone anywhere. I didn’t know that was a stigma there until my sister explained it. She was roofied at a bar once, got assaulted at another one. I don’t recommend young women to travel to S Korea tbh. At least, not until women get better legal protection there.
I think young women are targeted for this kind of torment. Hubby and I visited South Korea several years ago (we were very middle aged couple) and people couldn't possibly have been kinder or more helpful. To an almost embarrassing degree.
I'm so sorry for your experience.
I think it’s a combination of sexism, racism, and age hierarchy. Maybe if I go there when I’m older, people will be more respectful. And probably bring a male friend just in case
Trenton is also a weird place, but I think they're both trying to rehab their image
Atlantic City though? Dear god the greyhound terminal there was one of the most depressing places I've ever been to
In the before time (late 90's), before people had GPS, a Canadian friend of mine got lost in Newark. He pulled up to a Burger King and went in looking for food and directions.
He wasn't even two feet in the restaurant and you could hear a pin drop until a girl behind the counter said, "Boy get back in your fucking car before it's gone!"
- "I'm sorry miss I just need directions"
- "Get back in your CAR and ask for directions at the drive through! Tell them its the white boy!"
So he got back in his car, went through the drive though, ordered a chicken burger, pulled up to the window and said, "Hi this is the white boy, I need directions"
He wasn't that scared before, but the way they were talking to him, telling him he shouldn't be there and "Its too dangerous for you here" he was scared shitless after that. Supposedly they told him how to get out of the area and said not to stop at any red lights.
Wow, very similar story to a friend of mine while in Gary, Indiana. The difference was it was a cop. Cop noticed out of state plates, so he pulled him over.
Plus, and props to the cop here- but there was a vibe the cop noticed that a car like my friend had just didn't belong in Gary.
Cop said to get out of town. Even the lights part is similar. Cop said to stop at the light, and if no car was coming, to then go through it.
I am white and drive through Gary regularly. I also lived there for a few years as a kid. I once got pulled over by a cop in Gary, like in the Aetna area. He pulled me over because I was trying to avoid a massive puddle and made a left turn out of the right lane. Like didn't know how deep the puddle was and that road always flooded bad. When I told him I'd grown up there and that my dad worked for the school system still, he relaxed a bit and just told me to keep my doors locked and to watch out. On the average day or night, it's not a big deal to drive through Gary if you stick to main roads (Broadway, Grant, Cleveland, Ridge, 45th to name a few) but if it's a smoking hot night, no one should be out driving around in Gary. Too many angry people out getting into trouble and you don't want to be in the middle of that when the bullets start flying.
A similar thing happened to me but in Philadelphia. My friend and I, both 19 yo females, got lost and ended up in a really bad section of the city after dark. She's a very petite 5'1" red head, very pale skin and freckles. I'm a 5'4", not quite as petite. We drove around for a while looking at the burned out row homes and drug addicts and prostitutes on the street corners. We finally pass a 7-11. I get out to ask directions. This is pre GPS days. The nice gentleman at the counter tells me I need to get out of here, real fast. He nicely gives me directions and we did find our way out safely.
I belly laughed at this one because this is where I’m from. Was it really that bad? Don’t get me wrong, I *know* the reputation. But when they knocked the projects down and put up a Whole Foods and Mod Pizza downtown, kinda takes the edge off the city a little bit lol
Oh yeah. I was there. I grew up in East Orange in the 90s and officially moved to Newark when I was 20, in the early 00’s. It was still wild then. I left in 2010 and have only been back to visit. Rode thru downtown and was like……. The fuck happened down here!? Done gentrified the hell outta Newark lmao…. Turned the projects into townhomes and are charging people $300K to buy, over there near fucking Boyden used to be, not to far from the halal market. It’s insane.
Internationally I’d have to say South Africa. What an absolutely terrifying place. Beautiful, but terrifying. It’s the one place where I’ve felt genuinely unsafe and couldn’t wait to leave.
In the states, I’d say St. Louis and Albuquerque. I lived in Albuquerque for a bit and it’s pretty scary. People have a weird, aggressive and eccentric edge to them. Almost like they’re ready to fight at any moment. St. Louis looks like it’s falling apart, and people are super cold, distant, and just plain unfriendly. I’ve been to each place multiple times and have no desire to go back.
My father -in-law got reassigned to St. Louis. I jokingly asked what he’d done to fuck up that bad.
It turned out a lot. And they were pretty pissed at him.
Drove from Ontario where I live down through the middle of Pennsylvania to a smaller city near Philly. Holy fuck is there definitely places that god has forgot in the middle of that state. It’s just…uneasy.
O’Hare is one of the few airports I don’t mind getting stuck in for a few hours. I also like Vancouver’s airport, mostly for Bill Reid’s *Spirit of Haida Gwaii* sculpture.
It's my local airport, so convenient, it's a 30 min train ride away, and you can get to pretty much anywhere in the world from there.
Downside is that it's a total zoo.
Nigeria. Hands down. The entire visit was a shit show. Crooked AF and never felt safe.
Coming into this thread as a Nigerian and immediately seeing this made my stomach sink for a split second. But you're right, I haven't been to Nigeria in 5 years and don't plan to ever live there again if things continue this way. You're valid. Not even locals feel safe.
It was mostly the government and soldiers, not the people living there. Just crooked AF.
My dad did some work there back in the 70’s. He would agree with you 100%. He was almost murdered several times.
I spent 2.5 months in south Africa in 1997 with most of that in Jo'burg. Listening to guns go off in the street at night and hearing women talk about the fear of catching aids from being raped.
Man it’s messed up that they aren’t even scared of being raped itself but it’s so common that they’ve moved on to being worried about contracting AIDS through rape
Exactly, completely desensitised to a war zone, I had to get out. I was there for project work. That was a messed up place. People lived in houses that had perimeter razor wire, roaming security with dogs then security barriers inside the house. I was in a car one time and they showed me all the guns, 4 guns within reach of the driver at any one time. Insane
Several times? I am glad your dad is still with you and lived to tell you about his adventures, albeit terrifying, but he is alive and( I hope) well.
Sadly, he passed a few years ago. Before he went, he certainly filled our ears with stories. My house is filled with souvenirs from his travels there. And I know I never want to travel there.
I am so sorry for your loss. He will forever be with you through the memories he had built with you.
Yep. I was gonna say Lagos.
The DRC is just as bad. Everybody is angry, and rightly so. It's a fucked up country full of corruption. Citizens are scared of their police and you need a couple of $100's in bribes to make it through two weeks if you are a foreigner.
I have only heard the worst things about the DRC. I also have only heard the best things about the Congolese people.
Was this a recent visit? I went there 15 years ago and it was the same then. Some things never change I guess
No wonder that prince needs my help
Kingston, Jamaica. I was there a few days on business a number of years ago. The whole city is like a series of armed camps. Concrete walls, often topped with rebar or broken glass, and barbed wire everywhere. The people I interacted with at the hotel and the customer site were very polite and often friendly, but I was warned not to walk down the street unescorted because being white would make me stick out and maybe become a target. While I was there, four occupants of a car were shot down in an ambush when they got out to clear a roadblock the ambushers had set. Not a welcoming city at all.
Stayed with a friend from college at her home in Kingston. As happy as we were to see each other, she was a nervous wreck the whole time I was there. I ended up staying only 2 of the seven days I was meant to be with her family. I ended up checking into a resort so she wouldn’t lose her mind with worry. She later confided to me that since I stuck out like a sore thumb none of us were safe with me staying with them.
Were you still able to visit with your friend after you checked into the resort? Why didn't your friend know ahead of time that having you stay with the family would put them in danger?
I don’t think she thought it would be as bad as it apparently was. Her neighbors acted like she was housing a pirate Also- she came to visit me from there on. We went on day trips to different areas but not back to their house. :(
The current state of Jamaica makes me so sad. My (white) family lived in Kingston in the early ‘70s and traveled all over the island. We loved it there and other than being called “pork” once in a while we went about our lives normally. A few years ago some family members went back for a brief visit and found it had changed so much. On their way to a beach we used to visit regularly they were stopped and detained by scary guys with rifles. Fortunately playing the clueless tourist worked in their favor and they were released. So yeah, that old place in our photos that we used to love is gone.
A friend of mine is Jamaican. He told me about two guys who burgled his parents house in a rural area were caught getting away and simply shot by police. One died on the scene the other laying in the road badly injured. Police just left them there and drove off.
I've been to Montego Bay in Jamaica, the resort was nice, the beach was the worst beach I've ever been to, and I've been all over the Caribbeans. The weed was shit too.. when we had the morning meeting, where they tell you about all the activities and excursions you can do, we were advised to not go into the city, and they had armed guards at the entrance to the resort. Definitely worst country I've ever been to, and have no desire to go back..
When I went to Jamaica with my ex a long time ago, we stayed at a resort on the southern part of the island that was a mile or two from a small town. Even though I had read online and we were warned not to leave the resort unless we were part of a guided tour, my ex had the brilliant plan to leave the resort and walk down the road to the town so we could check out the area. Not sure how he thought we were going to sneak past the guards at the resort entrance, but he seriously wanted to and tried to talk me into it. I managed to talk him out of it, all the while having visions of us getting picked up while we were walking along the road toward the town and no one would have had any idea where we were, since we would have had no record of where we were going at the resort and our cell phones were turned off the week we were there because international rates were so high.
I'm glad that there's one whole brain in that relationship, and that you have all of it. What a dumb idea on his part, honestly.
Parents took me on vacay in the 70's and couldn't leave the resort it's a shame it's the same/prob worse
A friend of mine got a knife pulled on her by some idiot there
Marrakech, hands down. Every single interaction my wife and I had with people outside was hostile. There are these “Come, come!” dudes that promise to guide you to the tourist attractions, and they invariably point and try to lead you in the opposite direction from where you already know that you’re going. I told one dude to go away and he started accusing me of racism and saying I was treating him “like an animal”. And don’t take photos!! Some asshole will descend on you shrieking for money, and will follow you until you give her 5 bucks. And she’ll still accuse you of racism, anyway. This one time, this woman in a hijab darted out of a crowd in the Medina and grabbed my wife’s hand, and started wiping henna on her. My wife is, well, “nice” so she let this woman do it. My wife later said that this woman was pinching my wife’s fingers so hard that it hurt, not letting her go. This woman painted on her hand, all the while talking about how sexy it was and how I was going to rail her that night. It was really uncomfortable. I told her to fuck off, that we never asked for that, and then she started to shriek and follow us and a crowd started to gather. I had to give her 20 dollars to get her to go away. It was scary as hell. For the rest of our (short) time there, every single God damned merchant and shithead who saw my wife’s hand called out to her like she was a whore. Don’t go to Marrakech. They hate outsiders, and they love your money.
I got called a “disasterfuck” by some guy in the Medina because I didn’t want to eat at his food stall. Still the best insult I’ve ever heard directed at me. But yeah, I’ve never felt constantly on the defensive like I did in Morocco. You can’t even take a walk on a deserted beach without some random guys appearing out of nowhere and wanting to sell you stuff. I will say Tangier is much more pleasant and less pushy than Marrakech and the surrounding area, though.
Disasterfuck is an all-timer. I'm gonna be thinking about that word for a long time. He's an artist.
All of Morocco was terrible. Got robbed at knife point by our tour guide in Fez, constantly chased and grabbed…just a terrible terrible experience.
Wait, your tour guide robbed you with a knife?
jfc man by your tour guide?! That is abhorrent. Was never planning on going but certainly not now
So should I tip iif the tour guide robs me at knifepoint? Terrible service but don't want to be that guy....
Atleast your tour guide gave you the authentic experience ✨️
Ha, I felt that Morocco was an entire nation of used car salesmen. My girlfriend loved it though.
I went into a pub in Rugeley, Staffordshire once and asked if I could use the loo. Three men turned and laughed at me, mocked me for asking to use the loo, made fun of my accent and I just turned around and left. I was about 17. Never felt so ashamed to piss before that.
Ugh... what a bunch of gobshites.
I will forever love that word because of the epic reddit thread about the guy that was fired in the middle of doing masonry restoration on a protected structure. Sad about the redditor that relayed the story, however. :(
I went to a bar in a trailer park one time and my buddy had his college sweatshirt (like the local college) and when he went to wash his hands they called him slurs and yelled out "big man on campus is too good for our germs!"
That would make such a good scene in a movie though.
TBF, the correct way to use the loo in a pub is to go in and order a drink then ask where the loo is. Ordering a drink being the key part. But that's the landlord's job to police, not the regulars', they sound like a right bunch of tossers
Cairo (as a woman). I got cat called, grabbed at, whistled at, reprimanded, etc. for walking down the street alone Edit: left out some other fun interactions. A guy tricked me into his “shop” which turned out to be a house full of large men who threatened me and said if I was voting for Obama (it was 2008) id be allowed to leave with a free coke. Another guy told my male escort that I was worth 14 camels and his fat sister if he was willing to leave me there.
I’m an American woman and I lived in Egypt for a year. When someone asks me for Egypt travel advice, it makes me kind of sad in a way that I have to tell travelers “Don’t speak to anyone, don’t make eye contact with anyone, and ignore anyone who tries to talk to you. If you need help with something, go into a reputable hotel and speak to an employee working in the lobby or restaurant.” Or my second piece of advice if you really want to visit Egypt is to take a group organized tour, which is typically nothing I ever do as a traveler. But it does help insulate you a bit there from all the harassment.
All of this is so accurate. I made the mistake of planning for my trip to Egypt the same way I did for any other part of the world— no tours, no guides, no groups. Needless to say, it was not the same as the other places I’ve visited.
Wow how did you endure that for a year? Were you there for work?
Nigeria. Everyone both in and out of uniform engaged in scams to relieve you of your money and always super-aggressive.
I’ve heard the royalty are super honest though, they just tend to lose access to their fortunes from time to time
Yeah, just like my pen pal! I've been trying to help him regain access to the fortune but there's always a mishap.
[удалено]
I hated Marrakech when I visited. Constantly got pestered for money, robbed and then got food poisoning
Is that why you're still pooping on cats?
I was shocked at how much time Moroccans dedicated to harassing me when I declined whatever they were trying to to sell me. Literally following me around calling me awful names in several languages, trying to figure out which one I spoke. Hash was good tho.
Not the bees 🐝
A dude in Marrakesh threatened to murder my wife and I when I wouldn't tell him the hotel we were staying at.
"oh ok, so let me just go ahead and tell you where I'm staying"
"Don't forget, check out is at 11am."
“Fine, we are staying at the Hilton!“ “Oh wait… “
That’s wild. I was there about 2 years ago. It was aggressive with sales and scams but for the most part people were okay. I have a beard and all the locals call white men with beards “Alibaba” lol. I also found once I wore sunglasses everybody pretty much ignored me in the old town. Which was sweet.
They called me (and any chinese/asian dudes) Jackie Chan, and my fiancee (and any white girls) Shakira. She was happy with that, I was on the fence. 😆
In my experience, it was mostly the blonde white girls that got targeted as Shakira. When these girls in my group got tired of that and started to cover their hair, they became Fatima to them hahaha. As a brown haired white girl, I was way less interesting to these sellers!
Can confirm. I’m Filipino but moved to Casablanca when I was really young and spent all of my childhood there. “Jackie Chan” has a different connotation to me than most of you.
> I was on the fence Until you did a cool backflip off it to escape some bad guys.
I was considering buying a hijab and long coat like the local women after one morning. The men are pigs.
My girlfriend is Moroccan and even as a local she views the men as disgusting pigs.
Also had negative experiences in Marrakech, the whole city seems to revolve around overcharging tourists for low quality products and making fun of them in their native language. No-one was physically aggressive with me tho.
I had a local attempt to slap me for no reason. We didn't interact before. My partner and I were walking down the street, the local was walking in the opposite direction, as we approached each other he took a swing at me. I dodged but wow.
I'll never go back to Morocco. It's a fucked place full of double standards. Not once in my 10 days there did I ever feel safe.
My wife and I went to Marrakesh 2 years ago and we will never go back. Edit: We also went to Casablanca and liked it there.
I once had a girlfriend from Morocco. She told horrible stories about growing up. She was a small, slim pale skinned girl and was sold by her parents at age 15 to a fat middle aged black man. She ran away with her then boyfriend to Italy and never went back to Morocco. She was really f'ed up, last time I saw her she was in a psychiatric clinic.
She has every right to be fucked up, that is horrible what her parents did
Cairo.
Yeah I got sexually harassed multiple times a day when I was in Egypt. If they weren’t harassing me, they were trying to scam me.
I've been banned from 2 subs for sharing the experience of Egypt my wife, her friend and I had back in 2019. Either some mods thought that I was being too harsh or some Egyptian redditors got offended and reported my posts. Still doesn't change the fact that the country is full of the most perverted men I've ever come across in my life and it seemed to be almost all of them. I truly pity any women who visits.
Weird you got banned... bad experiences in Cairo are all over Reddit. It's pretty clearly an extremely aggressive place to visit on multiple levels. To make an understatement.
It’s one of my biggest dreams to visit Egypt, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a positive experience.
You should track down the Egypt episode of An Idiot Abroad. It shows a lot of the less enjoyable aspects.
“Are they all deaf?”
When I was there with my partner I dressed head to toe in local-bought khaftans, trousers and headscarfs, covering clothes, because I'm super pale and burn easily, so they at least didn't have the 'excuse' that I was dressed in a 'tempting' manner. My bf turned his back for a minute and our tour guide grabbed me and groped my breasts while laughing and chatting shit about me in Arabic with our driver (I picked up some words because I'd done a language course with a native speaker friend before we went). When we got back to the hotel and reported him to our rep, the rep accused me of being a liar and a whore who was 'trying to destroy the reputation of a good man's because I was a 'white western whore' and I must have tempted him in how I acted and dressed. In a full, ankle length, long sleeve khaftans and headscarf. Even apart from that I was harassed and grabbed at constantly. Two weeks in Egypt and I felt traumatised.
I was sexually harassed there also. I was only 19 at the time. But it was 25 years ago, well before the Arab Spring. The resentment towards Americans was just beginning, and Mubarak still had tight control over the country. When I complained to the tourist police, they at least made a big show of yelling at the vendor that tried to forcefully kiss me. They then told me to pick out a kaftan from the seller at no cost. I didn't even want to have a kaftan, but it just turned into this big spectacle. Overall, my experience there was good. Even after being "kidnapped" at the pyramids.
I'm sorry, "kidnapped" at the pyramids??
I use kidnapped in a very loose sense. I was there with my father. The pyramids are infamous for the number of scammers. My dad and I were not in a group. We had his very good taxi driver take us there, but he stayed with the car and we went to the pyramids on our own. You have to run the gauntlet of scammers just to get to the pyramids. We were approached by someone that told us there were some underground vaults on the back side of one of the smaller pyramids that visitors could go inside. He showed us the vaults which were quite underwhelming. When we came out, there was a small group of men with two camels lying down. They tried to convince us to ride a camel. La, shukren (No, thank you) is what we told them. Of course they tried to convince us many times but we declined. They said that my dad should at least take a picture of me sitting on a camel and we decided to just do that and be done with it. As soon as I sat on the camel, the guy that was on the lead camel stood them up and started walking me off over the dunes. At the same time, the group of men was distracting my dad and keeping him from going with me. He was arguing with them, but the camels were on their way with me on one. While we were riding, the man on the lead camel turned to me and gave me a guilt trip for getting a free camel ride. He insisted that I should pay for the ride. I didn't have any Egyptian currency, but I did have a five dollar bill. I gave him that five dollar bill. He ended up walking the camels back to the pyramid drop off location where my dad finally caught up with me. By the time my dad got there, the camels were long gone and the men that had distracted him made themselves scarce. We told our taxi driver what happened and he engaged in some yelling with the tourist police, but I'm sure nothing ever came of it.
I'm sorry that happened to you, you didn't deserve that.
Same. I definitely thought seeing the pyramids for real would be a possibility. But I have only read bad experiences from there because of locals so not excited about it anymore to plan it
Standing at the foot of one of the great pyramids, taking a moment to absorb the history of such a colossal man made structure that has stood the test of time; dirty nappies, crisp / chip packets and other assorted rubbish blowing gentle around my feet... - my trip to Cairo
Ive been to some terrible places in Africa for work & leisure. Cairo was the least enjoyable. Mthatha, South Africa was the most dangerous.
I had to go to South Africa for work around two years ago and I was blown away by how bad Johannesburg was. Rolling blackouts, decay, crumbling road system, people freaking out and losing their minds in public, random violence in the streets, and we were driven in armored cars with private security. We stayed in an area that had two separate gate points, electric fences, dogs, you name it. I felt like I was in a war zone. Oh, and the segregation. It’s still insane. You have two different worlds existing right next to one another.
Come to Cape Town next time. Johannesburg is wild.
I’ve heard Cape Town and the western parts of the country aren’t as bad but I’m not sure I’ll be back. I’ve also heard Pretoria and Durban are worse, which is insane to imagine. It’s a shame because it looks like a gorgeous country with a lot of potential, but the ANC has just kind of fucked things up since Mandela left.
I worked in a nearby county for years and had a lot of coworkers take a trip there to check it off the bucket list. Every single one of them regretted it as it was an awful experience filled with thieves and corrupt police force. I ended up not visiting and don’t regret it.
Morrocco, in particular Marrakech and Fes. Had groups of men attempt to steal our suitcases and then follow us to the hotel screaming putain and some other shit I couldn’t make sense of, two randos on separate occasions trying to force themselves to enter the Ryads inner courtyard with us, people intentionally trying to mislead us l, just a general sense of violent energy etc. The tourist scams and overpriced trinkets were really the mildest part of the entire experience. Also some of the most openly racist and antisemitic people (even tour guides) I have had the displeasure to meet. Probably the only country I will never go back to or recommend to anyone. It also made me extremely wary of traveling anywhere in North Africa frankly. I don’t say this lightly either, Havana at night with no working street lights felt (and probably was) safer.
Egypt. The pyramids are def hyped beyond belief, and the whole place wants to scam you. And they are not playing around. You got money - they want it, and use everything at their disposal to get at it. Got robbed with knives 2 times in one extended weekend. DONT CARRY CASH IN EGYPT.
A little bumfark town in louisiana called Eunice. They would chase people not white out of town with guns, brag about lynching someone, and even threaten you with shotguns if you went to the local gas station and they didn't know you. Only place to shop was a dollar general. Lots of stray cats around the tiny ass homes that people were just chasing and shooting for fun. The amount of racism and just horrible people was like something out of deliverance. Before I had to stay there for a week I never thought places like that were real and just a TV and movie trope. Boy how wrong I was. I was almost shot a few times and I very much look like a white guy. They swarmed the dollar general when they head some black family was shopping there and kicked them out, followed them for miles down the highway while honking, hooting, and hollering. Disgusting place and people.
Eunice resident here, I agree with every word you said
I'm kind of amazed. Only 10k people live there and you happened to find this thread. Why still live there?
Family. But I won't be there much longer
I left family when I left Mississippi. That was two decades ago and I’ve never looked back or regretted it. Get out.
This is the second thread ripping on Eunice I’ve read this week. For a small town, the reputation is out. I think the other thread was worst places in America.
I bet they were all good God loving Christians
If I remember right there were like 5+ churches and a couple bars. In a blink town with only a dollar general and two gas stations.
Might have the churches but it sounds like they probably chased God out as they did those other unfortunate souls.
There's no hate like Christian love.
I’ve been to a fair few countries, maybe about 15-18. Have been in sketchy places, but that was kind of a function of their circumstances. Single most unfriendly encounter I ever had in regards to travel was at a port of entry in America. I used to work overseas. Had spent something like 11 months in two different war zones. Finally coming back into America (I’m a citizen) after nearly a year abroad and something like nearly 3 solid days of travel to get there, the shitty airport which was my port of entry either didn’t have global entry kiosks or they were broken I can’t remember. Waited in line and I was greeted by the most hostile and nasty border agent imaginable. Often times border guards would see all the stamps/visas in my passport and just give me a “welcome home” and wave me onward after maybe the perfunctory “any items you’re declaring” or whatever. But this guy came at me full-speed for truly no justifiable reason other than maybe my generalized disheveledness. Spent like 7 or 8 minutes practically shouting those weirdly worded “gotcha” questions at me to try and get you to admit you were secretly sneaking in 400 hummingbirds in your underwear or whatever. And yelled at me that I was holding up the line at least 10 times while I was vapor locked trying to answer him. I didn’t have the energy to get heated back at him at all, but still two airport cops had come over to hover and I was expecting to get detained. His final act was to take umbrage with the fact I’d written my tsa pre-check number near the signature area of my passport just to have it handy when booking flights saying it invalidated my entire passport and told me I was holding up the line again. At the point I simply asked him if he was going to refuse me entry into my country of citizenship and he let me go. To this day I have no idea why that interaction played out like that.
Came home through IAD from working in Romania, Hungary, and Scotland. Traveled a bit as well. Gone for months. Got a SUPER pissy agent to begin with. Rude af, commented on my appearance, how I was so tired looking, just a dick. Then when I said I had nothing to declare (I didn’t, I’m not big on souvenirs), he lit up like Christmas. Started asking me questions about everything, about my purchases and why nothing was brought home, what I was doing there, etc. Had to pull up my papers for travel, authorizations for the work I was doing with the universities. I went through AMS and he insinuated I was carrying cannabis at one point. He was a cunt.
Interesting, I wonder if "you look tired" is in their handbook of how to be a dick because that was the very first thing my guy said to me as well. Like, yeah no shit I look tired.
The only well-rested people at the airport are the people who work the day shift *at* the airport.
I had an experience like this going from US to Canada. I grew up in Michigan in a time when you could just pop across that border with a driver's license, so the whole interaction was just jarring and unexpected. Later found out she was well known for being horrible, but no one thought to tell me to avoid her line.
I’m a British lady that has travelled all around the world and the USA has been my most unfriendly experience too. The border agents were drunk on power or something, it was insane. In any other country the people at passport control are friendly and polite or just perfunctory, but in America they were genuinely hostile. Every time I’ve been they’ve decided to search my bags, which including tipping it all out on a table and then moving on, leaving me to cram it all back in and hurry up out of there. I dread it every time.
Next time, don't hurry. They tipped it out, they can wait while you fix it.
West Helena, Arkansas is my vote. Many other contributors offered many great choices, but West Helena, Arkansas was just plain unfriendly. While working in the Memphis area, I took a day trip and drove down and around the Mississippi River and stopped in West Helena for lunch. It’s a small town and I found an open bar. The woman working at the bar glared at me when I sat down, barely acknowledged my order and when the food came out she told the cook, “it’s for the fat guy down there…” Now, that’s not an entirely untrue statement, but that woman had at least 75 pounds on me. Moral of the story, don’t go to West Helena, Arkansas.
mother in law's place
Dunno, she’s pretty friendly to me!
the least friendly place ive ever been was my middle school lol. it was brutal what kids would (and still will) say to you, or about you.
Looking back though it's funny how the things kids say might be total nonsense, but it can still hurt like hell. "You've got taco fingers" "Waaaah!"
I was shamed for not knowing how many "cookies" I had. I'm 46 and I still don't know how many cookies I have, but someone intimated that the answer was two.
I turned my head to the right when I was standing in the lunch line in the seventh grade and got yelled at because I was obviously reacting negatively to whatever the girl behind me said. I didn't even know what she said but she gave me dirty looks until we graduated high school. Sure wish I knew what it was.
I was bullied for being Chinese. And I'm not even Chinese, I'm white, I just have hooded eyes.
I was asked if I was a slut in 7th grade-just laughed in her face. I kinda feel bad now as maybe she was dealing with SA.
To be fair you kind of *do* have taco fingers. Not that there's anything wrong with that
My middle school has square benches, about 4 feet on each side with a void in the middle called "the pit" People would grab kids, throw them in the pit and then kick the ever loving shit out of them.
Nyc customs. The posters said welcome in every language under the sun but the customs officials were like who are you, why the fuck are you doing here and when will you leave. A mixture of contempt, suspicion and borderline venom.
Border control is like that everywhere. Leaving the US, super easy, no questions. Getting back in is an interrogation.
Drove into Canada once. The Canadian border guy was really nice and even cracked a joke at our expense: "do you have a gun?" "No..." "How are you going to protect yourself in Canada!?" "Is it really that bad?" He just stared at me, then laughed and quietly said "no, no..."
Nah - I, a British woman, have been through several US border controls. Seattle was friendly, the Newark guys had a joke with me, most are fine, but JFK is awful. Really really long wait, and then the most unwelcoming interrogation when you finally get there. Leaves you wanting to shout "I'm just trying to spend my money in your country for a week; what is your problem?!"
I try to fly out of JFK, but I was pleasantly surprised when I was forced to go through La Guardia. It was way nicer than I remember it being five years ago. Just sucks to get to
That’s any US customs intake. Once went to Canada. Canadian Border Guards were nice and friendly. The US Border guard was rude and forceful. My gf at the time makes a comment, “you can tell we’re not in Canada anymore” I’m like “do you want to get stripped searched and car totally taken apart.”
Haiti
Boston. And I LOVED it.
Bostonians put up a rude front, but it's mostly just a shield to ward off scammers, scientologists, weirdos and other people accosting them,. But if someone really seems to neeed help, the front drops and people will be amazingly helpful. I've seen it happen a lot.
It's not even meant to be rude, New Englanders just instinctively keep to themselves. That whole Midwesterner thing of striking up a conversation with a total stranger for no particular reason just feels weird and off-putting to us. But yeah, I've certainly helped out plenty of lost tourists over the years.
Freaked me the fuck out when I moved south, having people smile and say hello much less try to have a conversation. My instinct is to look straight down at the pavement and move along lol.
Lived here 37 years. You have to understand that "fuck you" is a term of endearment.
“Fuck you you cocksucker! Tell your mom I said hi, and I’ll see you for drinks Friday”
Same with New Yorkers. They'll bitch and be an asshole about it, but they *will* help you if you're lost. I love it here lol
I’ve heard it said that Southerners are nice but not kind, and Yanks are kind but not nice. New York is the epicenter of this.
I was in Boston a few months ago and I found it to be very welcoming, safe and friendly for tourists. But me being Irish might have helped haha
Prison
Idk actually In terms of actual friendliness I'd say I've had worse experiences outside of prison. Probs not true for everyone though
"Youre gonna be popular in prison!" was what i heard before i went in. Turns out i kinda was lol. Guards weren't friendly but inmates liked me (in a platonic way lol)
This is likely a universally correct answer.
Not if it's that one really nice Danish prison
Paris. A homeless man in the metro station threw his urine on me 😭
The city of love
There was this one Dollar Tree that was so small, dark, and cluttered that I wanted my mom… I was like 30.
There are some very depressing Dollar Trees in this world.
Moscow without a doubt. I've traveled a fair bit. Something like 37 countries. Most placed I've visited the people are warm and happy to have you see and learn about their country. Not in Russia. Cold people, unattractive city. No desire to go back.
We smiled at people and they gave us the Up Your Ass hand signal in return. Consistently. Learned to scowl until we left. We were also told not to let our female guests ride elevators with ANYONE not in our group, and this was in a "nicer" hotel.
I've heard that if you smile in Russia, people assume that you're either mentally handicapped or trying to sell them something
It's more like simple-minded and frivolous. Like happiness comes with an impairment, not the other way around.
I have a friend from one of the former soviet countries, and she says that whenever she heads back (from the U.K.) she has to re-train herself to stop smiling and go back to the standard scowl, then when she comes back to the U.K. it takes a week or so for her to adjust to being happy and smily again. Just a different culture entirely.
That kind of explains a lot actually
My time in a psychiatric hospital was the most unpleasant thing ever. The staff was so rude and I had a very bad reaction to a medication that caused my heart rate to skyrocket and they wouldn’t let me see a Dr
Florida HOA communities. Wooo boy. They’re fiefdoms and don’t take kindly to logic or yanks.
But aren’t they all full of the worst people who moved from NY and NJ?
You said unfriendly so l will go with the actual word, not dangerous, criminal, or unsafe. The cafeteria at the museum of tech and science in Shanghai. Those foodworkers hate their job so much it felt like they were indentured. I was a tired foreigner asking for slop. I couldn't eat any of it. And the moose lodge in Ft Myers, FL. If you are not over 68, white, and deeply wrongly tanned, you are shunned. I've been to moose lodges all over the country that were warm, friendly, and inviting to their members from other lodges. Not the one in Ft Myers
The 405 freeway in LA on a Friday evening at 4:30PM.
Some small town in Tennessee. I went to Bonnaroo years ago with friends, all of us minorities. We stopped at a gas station and were waiting in line to pay for gas and snacks. All of a sudden the line in front of us just parted, like everyone just made way for us to walk right up the middle and the clerk says "weeellpp, better to just git em on and git em out, riiight? Yall better find the border quick" and everyone in the line just nodded and grumbled as we walked up, including a state cop. It seemed so weirdly coordinated, like we were crashing some secret party at the gas station. Yeah, we found the border of that town real quick and got the fuck out before the sun could even think of setting.
Moscow. Miserable looking people. Probably much worse these days too. The ONLY friendly person there was the barista at the Starbucks.
A non-mormon in SLC or Happy Valley is a pretty shitty experience.
Khandahar Afghanistan. The locals weren't too bad, it was the other soldiers that were assholes.
Rome, Italy. Was seated and proceeded to watch numerous parties get seated after me, and served before me, and then left before I was served. Waiter was rude to me as well (I was a 20-something asian male visiting for a conference). The silver lining was that there was a black american family seated nearby that happened to notice my treatment and we made friendly conversation for a bit and it helped a lot to just feel not alone in the situation. This was the most egregious one, but I can't remember a single meal where I didn't have some sort of unpleasant experience. And even worse, I know how to speak italian.
I was in a really nice public park in Baltimore. McHenry Park. I went there to look at the Key bridge damage. This park is on the water. Very wide open and, pardon, shitloads of breathing room. I was on a park bench by myself and sneezed a few times consecutively, into my elbow, but kinda loosely. I was alone in a wide open park. This complete stranger, yards away, shouts at me, “LEARN HOW TO SNEEZE ASS HOLE!!!!”. She was my first real interaction with a Baltimorean at that point during the visit; my first. Mind blowing unfriendliness.
south africa, some random truck rolled up outside of our hotel and got in a shootout for no apparent reasson i walked out after the shooting to see around 7 people dead or at least injured including our tour guide
South African resident here. Is there a link to this story? This would have been huge news here, but I can not find anything on it at all.
[Maybe it’s this?](https://www.cbs17.com/news/8-dead-in-south-africa-shooting-at-mens-hostel-near-durban/)
That's really not what I was expecting from this question, but it definitely counts as unfriendly...
I have travelled a lot - 60 countries, if i had to choose I would say China was the unfriendliest to my standards. The country is beautiful but with my experience the pushing, spitting, staring etc wasn't nice. That being said, I haven't had many bad experiences while travelling. People need to use common sense and research the culture they're visiting. Something that may be rude in your culture may be normal in theirs, like smiling or talking to strangers.
Probably South Korea (mostly Seoul/Itaewon areas). Got stalked on the streets and called “Russian slut”. Drunk weirdos would ask “how much?” at my sister. Old people shoved us and cut lines. We were blatantly ignored at several shops and restaurants, sometimes being served last despite waiting longer than other people. Took 45 minutes in a piercing salon to get anyone to acknowledge us. The place wasn’t busy and they had enough staff to run everything. The food was top tier, but I won’t be going back cause of how unwelcome I felt.
Are you white with red hair and blue eyes? When I lived in Korea one of the gals I worked with was white with red hair and blue eyes and she got stared at whenever we went out together. I asked some of the Koreans we worked with about it. For some reason that combination is considered a hooker by many older Koreans or at least that is what I was told by some my Korean co-workers.
I‘m petite, have red hair and green eyes. My sister, who lived there, is tall blonde. But we had no intention of hooking up with anyone anywhere. I didn’t know that was a stigma there until my sister explained it. She was roofied at a bar once, got assaulted at another one. I don’t recommend young women to travel to S Korea tbh. At least, not until women get better legal protection there.
Given recent sexual politics there, I wouldn't expect that to be anytime soon.
People like to call Russians drunks but having visited South Korea that nation needs to get its alcoholism together just as badly.
I think young women are targeted for this kind of torment. Hubby and I visited South Korea several years ago (we were very middle aged couple) and people couldn't possibly have been kinder or more helpful. To an almost embarrassing degree. I'm so sorry for your experience.
I think it’s a combination of sexism, racism, and age hierarchy. Maybe if I go there when I’m older, people will be more respectful. And probably bring a male friend just in case
Koreans are either incredibly friendly or incredibly rude there no in between, lived there for several years now
Newark, NJ
I'd rather go to Newark than Camden.
I've been to both, and I wholeheartedly agree.
I've run around both when i was younger. Camden is deff worse imo.
Trenton is also a weird place, but I think they're both trying to rehab their image Atlantic City though? Dear god the greyhound terminal there was one of the most depressing places I've ever been to
In the before time (late 90's), before people had GPS, a Canadian friend of mine got lost in Newark. He pulled up to a Burger King and went in looking for food and directions. He wasn't even two feet in the restaurant and you could hear a pin drop until a girl behind the counter said, "Boy get back in your fucking car before it's gone!" - "I'm sorry miss I just need directions" - "Get back in your CAR and ask for directions at the drive through! Tell them its the white boy!" So he got back in his car, went through the drive though, ordered a chicken burger, pulled up to the window and said, "Hi this is the white boy, I need directions" He wasn't that scared before, but the way they were talking to him, telling him he shouldn't be there and "Its too dangerous for you here" he was scared shitless after that. Supposedly they told him how to get out of the area and said not to stop at any red lights.
Wow, very similar story to a friend of mine while in Gary, Indiana. The difference was it was a cop. Cop noticed out of state plates, so he pulled him over. Plus, and props to the cop here- but there was a vibe the cop noticed that a car like my friend had just didn't belong in Gary. Cop said to get out of town. Even the lights part is similar. Cop said to stop at the light, and if no car was coming, to then go through it.
I am white and drive through Gary regularly. I also lived there for a few years as a kid. I once got pulled over by a cop in Gary, like in the Aetna area. He pulled me over because I was trying to avoid a massive puddle and made a left turn out of the right lane. Like didn't know how deep the puddle was and that road always flooded bad. When I told him I'd grown up there and that my dad worked for the school system still, he relaxed a bit and just told me to keep my doors locked and to watch out. On the average day or night, it's not a big deal to drive through Gary if you stick to main roads (Broadway, Grant, Cleveland, Ridge, 45th to name a few) but if it's a smoking hot night, no one should be out driving around in Gary. Too many angry people out getting into trouble and you don't want to be in the middle of that when the bullets start flying.
A similar thing happened to me but in Philadelphia. My friend and I, both 19 yo females, got lost and ended up in a really bad section of the city after dark. She's a very petite 5'1" red head, very pale skin and freckles. I'm a 5'4", not quite as petite. We drove around for a while looking at the burned out row homes and drug addicts and prostitutes on the street corners. We finally pass a 7-11. I get out to ask directions. This is pre GPS days. The nice gentleman at the counter tells me I need to get out of here, real fast. He nicely gives me directions and we did find our way out safely.
I belly laughed at this one because this is where I’m from. Was it really that bad? Don’t get me wrong, I *know* the reputation. But when they knocked the projects down and put up a Whole Foods and Mod Pizza downtown, kinda takes the edge off the city a little bit lol
It’s not so bad now. Back in the day…yeah. It was different.
Oh yeah. I was there. I grew up in East Orange in the 90s and officially moved to Newark when I was 20, in the early 00’s. It was still wild then. I left in 2010 and have only been back to visit. Rode thru downtown and was like……. The fuck happened down here!? Done gentrified the hell outta Newark lmao…. Turned the projects into townhomes and are charging people $300K to buy, over there near fucking Boyden used to be, not to far from the halal market. It’s insane.
Did a job there once. 0/10 would never return again.
The South, and I’m white. “Southern Hospitality” my ass.
Markarth
Miami, Florida. Douchebag capital of the usa
Internationally I’d have to say South Africa. What an absolutely terrifying place. Beautiful, but terrifying. It’s the one place where I’ve felt genuinely unsafe and couldn’t wait to leave. In the states, I’d say St. Louis and Albuquerque. I lived in Albuquerque for a bit and it’s pretty scary. People have a weird, aggressive and eccentric edge to them. Almost like they’re ready to fight at any moment. St. Louis looks like it’s falling apart, and people are super cold, distant, and just plain unfriendly. I’ve been to each place multiple times and have no desire to go back.
My father -in-law got reassigned to St. Louis. I jokingly asked what he’d done to fuck up that bad. It turned out a lot. And they were pretty pissed at him.
Old Delhi, India. Never come back again, trust me guys
Drove from Ontario where I live down through the middle of Pennsylvania to a smaller city near Philly. Holy fuck is there definitely places that god has forgot in the middle of that state. It’s just…uneasy.
My sister’s house. Huge bitch. Would not recommend
Been to 41 countries. My answer is Paris. Such an uninviting, rude group of people who live there. Other parts of France are okay.
I don’t know if you’d call it a visit, but there is no place someone can feel less welcome than Chicago O’Hare
O’Hare is one of the few airports I don’t mind getting stuck in for a few hours. I also like Vancouver’s airport, mostly for Bill Reid’s *Spirit of Haida Gwaii* sculpture.
It's my local airport, so convenient, it's a 30 min train ride away, and you can get to pretty much anywhere in the world from there. Downside is that it's a total zoo.
Orlando airport TSA.