What's are the most dangerous countries or cities you visited?

keithclancy

Berserker wrote: »

Totally agree. I consider Dublin to be a very safe city even by European standards. I cannot think of any European city that would come close to the likes of Jo'burg in terms of danger.

Amsterdam and Istanbul (10 years ago) were the only two European cities where I felt unsafe. I stayed in Dam square, in a supposed five star hotel, in Amsterdam, so that probably didn't help. If I stayed elsewhere it might have changed my view of the city. The area was full of junkies and drunk tourists after dark.

Again, lumping SA and Europe in the same category makes no sense.
It's all about perceived danger.

E.G. I have some Shell colleagues that travel to the Niger Delta, to and from the Shell compound with an armed escort while riding in a bullet proof Toyota Hilux.

In European terms danger is at a different level, mostly around the possibility of assault, robbery or vandalism.

In Dublin casual vandalism, petty theft and crime are pretty common, there is not really a Police presence on the streets, in most major European Capitals you have police everywhere and they have the resources to deal with problems that occur.

When I was living in the Hague there was a burglary across the road, 4 police vans and around 10-15 police turned up within 5 minutes and a Helicopter came a few minutes later covering the area in case the burglars made a run for it over the roofs.

In Cologne I went for an evening after work, was sitting outside the HbF having a beer and there was some Muslim Protest March and a Football supporters clash, 200 police in riot gear within 10 minutes, whole thing resolved in less than 10 minutes.

In Dublin you get robbed/assaulted and the Gardai just shrug their shoulders and say they probably won't catch them anyway so why bother.

Those Orange March Riots in 2006 were another example, the Gardai were completely ill equipped to deal with the situation, people firing bricks at the them, massive damage caused to the center of the capital and many people were not caught afterwards.

Amsterdam had some problems 10 years ago due to a combination of a lack of social housing which has now been mostly resolved, but your never more than a 5 minute walk from a police station/static police depot in the Center.

Pinch Flat wrote: »

Dublin is in itself a very safe city. The scumbags and junkies you encounter here are light weight compared to what's abroad. I've note travelled particularly extensively - the US, most of Europe and Asia being my only real points of reference.

Stateside, just have New York and Boston to report and felt very safe in both.

Johannesburg up there for me as dodge central. Thankfully was just passing through. Some of the vibe in the larger towns and cities we passed through in South Africa was bad. In saying that, we had some very positive experiences as well. A visit to the township in Cape Town stands out as a particular humbling experience.

Travelled to most European countries and never really had any issues. The ones that stand out are (bizarrely) the vibe around Brussels main train station, which I found a bit intimidating. Naples as a city is dodgy. The whole Camorra thing freaked me out a bit - in saying that ,we found a lovely little cafe in among the local back streets where we had some lovely food among the locals.

Parts of the U.S. I think are a bit mental, had a German Colleague who was following the 'keep right' rule while driving down the Interstate. Pulled into a Petrol Station and a guy walked over clutching a revolver that was in a holster under his arm calling him 'boy' over and over and then started going on about the war when he realised he was German.

In New York/New Jersey you have to be mindful if you do encounter the Police to be submissive and agree with everything they say. Same goes for Florida and Texas.

This kind of stuff:
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/st-patricks-day-tourist-attacked-as-city-descends-into-night-of-violence-31075654.html

Happens all the time.

The crux of it is, if you go to Ireland, you have to be careful what you talk about when out and about. Many things are resolved with violence and fueled by alcohol.

Dublin is just the most densely populated part of the country so it's just more likely to happen. The drug problem is worse now than it was 10 years ago I think, the treatment programs are mainly just methadone clinics with little in the way of constructive therapy for their problems other than some religious values rehab center.

Junkies and Scumbags in Dublin have no problem following you down the road when you say no to whatever they ask for and in two cases I know of have actually called the Gardai to report the person for assault when they were defending themselves,queue ruined holiday and hours spent in a Garda station giving statements.

Ask any Garda, you can pretty do whatever you want in Ireland and get a slap on the wrist, or they won't have the resources to catch you.

To be honest I grew up in Dublin and lived there again for 2 years and thought was fine, but after living outside of Ireland for 7 years I can really see the difference.

hawkwind23

Well growing up in Belfast in the 70's you were in a fair bit of danger but it was all sort of normal , been shot at , bombs going off , glass flying out of the windows , shots going off etc etc , all was weirdly normal.

So i guess you have a better radar to real danger on the auld travels.

Cape Town is a lovely city , no more dangerous than a European city.

Jo'Berg , now Belfast was cuddly teddy bear compared to this city , even seen diners in Stanton getting robbed Pulp Fiction style, nowhere is safe! I remember one night in a dodgy club dowtown , around 4am if you wandered 100yds for a piss you were dead outside. I spent loads of time there and its awful the stories , basically we dont want to widen the gap between rich and poor. Not good. In saying that i loved the place and the people.

Nairobi , not that dangerous really , maybe downtown you would get robbed and that but you would be pretty stupid as a tourist.
As a longer term resident its dangerous - hence everyone having guns and mega security.
Again coming from Belfast never seen as many guns in my life , basically , you see a black guy in the garden you shoot them. Crazy

Some american cities mentioned , i found Oakland great and drank there in a few great bars but i lived in Richmond , some of the ghettos there were dangerous for the honky.

Amsterdam in the 80s was dodgy enough but more being young and stupid , had so many near death experiences.

In Europe probably the most scared ive been recently was in Poland (which i visit twice a year , love the place)
I ended up in a dodgy bar with a crowd of football hooligans , still shiver at how lucky i was to get away.

Dublin is grand but i can see how some would view the junkies as threatening , more a danger of alcohol fuelled stuff in town at nights tbh

BTW Belfast is lovely now and everyone should come visit

JackHeuston

I'd say Detroit, especially if you adventure only a couple miles out of downtown. Shady looking areas, people, everything. When I visited they had the nice average of 1.5 people murdered each day. That'll unlikely be you, and during the day downtown looks "normal". But I wouldn't push my luck too much at night.

After that Gary, Indiana, but I only drove through it.

In Europe I don't think I've ever seen anything close to these US cities.

JackHeuston

jjbrien wrote: »

Milan in the tourist areas I didn't feel safe. Kept getting harassed by African men trying to sell pieces of string. You tell them your not interested and they continue to chase you. We tried sitting down near the Sforza Castle to rest our feet and one of them comes up to us within 5 mins of sitting down and just wouldn't leave us alone. Seen them in Pisa too on the same trip. In Florence we didn't get hassled at all.

Hi there. I'm from Italy. That situation is really common in almost every Italian city. I wouldn't label it as dangerous at all, though. But I understand that if someone's not used to it, they'd be a bit scared.

In those cases you just need to tell them to go away in a strong way. They won't do anything to you, ever, especially in touristy areas. But I understand that's a huge pain in the arse, believe me, people living there have to go through that every single day.

Uno my Uno.

Yeah I just don't think there are any European Cities that are truly "dangerous." Some may be safer than others, some cities may have parts of them that should be avoided and as mentioned above with the Polish football hooligans Dangerous situations may arise but that doesn't make Poland or Dublin a "dangerous" city.

There are parts of cities in the US where you are as likely as not to be shot and killed if you go there. That is dangerous. Running the risk of getting hassled by a drug user on the red line? comparatively not dangerous. Distressing, unacceptable and should be stopped yes. But not dangerous compared to the dangers of other cities. Which of course is what this thread is all about.

TheDriver

Cairo felt unsafe around the streets, armed bodyguards everywhere and a dreadful dump of a place. The river doubled as landfill.

I felt very safe in DC, lovely spot I thought. Went to Harlem in NYC and felt very unsafe, followed by few guys so promptly walked to nearest subway and out of there.

Berserker

TheDriver wrote: »

Went to Harlem in NYC and felt very unsafe, followed by few guys so promptly walked to nearest subway and out of there.

I thought the Bronx was worse than Harlem but still couldn't say that I felt unsafe. Neither were a patch on Philly.

Balmed Out

TheDriver wrote: »

Cairo felt unsafe around the streets, armed bodyguards everywhere and a dreadful dump of a place. The river doubled as landfill.

I felt very safe in DC, lovely spot I thought. Went to Harlem in NYC and felt very unsafe, followed by few guys so promptly walked to nearest subway and out of there.

It was pre 9/11 that I went but found Cairo to be a fantastic friendly city with a pollution problem.

foleypio

Mexico City/cancun - found the most Dangerous part to be the taxi's, there's precautions you can take but it's where the majority of kidnappings occur. Depending on the grade of the taxi you get, you give yourself more/less of a chance of anything happening. Didn't get hassled at all walking around
Cairo - was there not long after the Arab spring, burnt out office buildings, extreme poverty, unfriendly locals.
Capetown - fine unless you start wandering around the city centre on your own, better off to take a taxi everywhere, cheap as chips. Beggars very aggressive, won't take no for an answer, junkies, skilled pickpockets there too
Izmir - found this Turkish city to be quite odd, very unsafe in the main transportation areas.
East Jerusalem - very tense, especially around the old city after dark. On the other hand, found tel aviv to be very easy going & safe

SwimFin

Dar es Salaam - frequent electricity blackouts renders the place into darkness that even in daylight is a scary place; they have armed guards sitting between grilles (shop door and footpath) during shop closing hours.

Stonetown, Zanzibar - tangible air of menace.

Life is cheap in Africa - you have to watch your back.

+1 - Belize; Jo'Burg

Anywhere in India if you're a female.

krustycustomer

keithclancy wrote: »

Again, lumping SA and Europe in the same category makes no sense.
It's all about perceived danger.

E.G. I have some Shell colleagues that travel to the Niger Delta, to and from the Shell compound with an armed escort while riding in a bullet proof Toyota Hilux.

In European terms danger is at a different level, mostly around the possibility of assault, robbery or vandalism.

In Dublin casual vandalism, petty theft and crime are pretty common, there is not really a Police presence on the streets, in most major European Capitals you have police everywhere and they have the resources to deal with problems that occur.

When I was living in the Hague there was a burglary across the road, 4 police vans and around 10-15 police turned up within 5 minutes and a Helicopter came a few minutes later covering the area in case the burglars made a run for it over the roofs.

In Cologne I went for an evening after work, was sitting outside the HbF having a beer and there was some Muslim Protest March and a Football supporters clash, 200 police in riot gear within 10 minutes, whole thing resolved in less than 10 minutes.

In Dublin you get robbed/assaulted and the Gardai just shrug their shoulders and say they probably won't catch them anyway so why bother.

Those Orange March Riots in 2006 were another example, the Gardai were completely ill equipped to deal with the situation, people firing bricks at the them, massive damage caused to the center of the capital and many people were not caught afterwards.

Amsterdam had some problems 10 years ago due to a combination of a lack of social housing which has now been mostly resolved, but your never more than a 5 minute walk from a police station/static police depot in the Center.



Parts of the U.S. I think are a bit mental, had a German Colleague who was following the 'keep right' rule while driving down the Interstate. Pulled into a Petrol Station and a guy walked over clutching a revolver that was in a holster under his arm calling him 'boy' over and over and then started going on about the war when he realised he was German.

In New York/New Jersey you have to be mindful if you do encounter the Police to be submissive and agree with everything they say. Same goes for Florida and Texas.

This kind of stuff:
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/st-patricks-day-tourist-attacked-as-city-descends-into-night-of-violence-31075654.html

Happens all the time.

The crux of it is, if you go to Ireland, you have to be careful what you talk about when out and about. Many things are resolved with violence and fueled by alcohol.

Dublin is just the most densely populated part of the country so it's just more likely to happen. The drug problem is worse now than it was 10 years ago I think, the treatment programs are mainly just methadone clinics with little in the way of constructive therapy for their problems other than some religious values rehab center.

Junkies and Scumbags in Dublin have no problem following you down the road when you say no to whatever they ask for and in two cases I know of have actually called the Gardai to report the person for assault when they were defending themselves,queue ruined holiday and hours spent in a Garda station giving statements.

Ask any Garda, you can pretty do whatever you want in Ireland and get a slap on the wrist, or they won't have the resources to catch you.

To be honest I grew up in Dublin and lived there again for 2 years and thought was fine, but after living outside of Ireland for 7 years I can really see the difference.

Gonna have to savagely disagree with all this, heavily policed areas are no safe....

Hence the requirement for all the police.

Crumpets

I felt a bit unsafe in Durban, South Africa because of all the stories I'd heard from South African friends but nothing actually happened, apart from beggars in the middle of the road banging on our car window a few times. We were simply told to avoid eye contact and we'd be fine. Bit unnerving alright.

dodderangler

Manila is crazy but so is most places in Philippines. Being that it's a poor country it's quite scary for white people to walk the streets. I had to walk with 2 lads who were basically my bodyguards through most of the towns.
And yes people following you aswell. But at 6"2 I was pretty safe according to the two lads I walked around with.
It'd be mainly older tourists who would be in danger over there.
I was up the north of Philippines and it wouldn't be as bad as Manila but it was just as cautious anyway.

keithclancy

krustycustomer wrote: »

Gonna have to savagely disagree with all this, heavily policed areas are no safe....

Hence the requirement for all the police.

It's not, there's just a Police force there on call if there's a problem.

Gardai are totally under resourced, the don't even have cars sometimes to go to calls and if you ring them their response time is very poor.

Wanderer78

its very hard and sad to read about poorer nations of the world. we really do have a lot of work to do to rectify this. very interesting thread though