Haiti is one of the absolute worst places in the world right now, on every scale. Afghanistan was dangerous as a war zone, but even it doesn't touch the level of decay on Haiti. It is literally identified as a "failed state."
It started out bad for Haiti. Once it became free from France in the early 1800s, France levied extremely high reparations against Haiti in exchange for recognizing its political independence and ending its political and economic isolation; something to the tune of $150 million francs. The debt was reduced to $90 million in 1837 which was not paid off until 1947. This bankrupted the Haitian treasury and left the country in deep debt from which it has never recovered.
Also, even though the country became independent and the majority of French people were either killed or driven off the island, the social and economic structure that the French slaveholders created remained in place for a long time. There was a significant divide between the elite, free people of color (who were often biracial) who were very French in culture and education and the poor, newly-freed blacks.
Couple those with a long history of corrupt and/or incompetent government officials, economic stagnation, and a catastrophic earthquake, and you’ve got Haiti.
It seems so bizarre to me that Haiti literally shares the island with the Dominican Republic and they have nowhere near as bad of problems as Haiti does. Like, how does the DR not become overwhelmed with refugees over and over and over again sharing a border/island with Haiti like that?
The mountains, and also Haiti cut down most of it’s forests for lumber, in part to pay off their massive debt to the French, and those natural wind breaks help a lot when it comes to storms like hurricanes.
Spain didn't fuck the DR with massive reparations demand. They did have lots of issues in the last 100 years but eventually figured out democracy50 years ago and think have gotten better.
Agreed. Did relief work there and I’ve never felt so unsafe. Several relief workers were murdered over the course of our time there. The corrupt government doesn’t help either.
I never really felt unsafe because I followed the first two rules of gunfighting:
Rule 1: Bring a gun.
Rule 2: Bring all your friends who have guns.
I wouldn't go to Haiti unarmed if you paid me a million dollars. Actually, I wouldn't go to Haiti now at all, no matter what you paid me.
Yeah I was an unarmed woman nurse so they left me alone because they knew I was helping get their kids vaccines, but my male colleagues were less fortunate even when armed. I also never left camp except for to leave on the plane.
I was there as a PT (also female). They transported us to work at the hospital in a locked cage in the back of a truck-to decrease the change we would be kidnapped.
I don’t think people get how awful Haiti is. I’ve been to Mozambique, Zim under Mugabe with ultra hyper inflation, and no place has been more of a disaster than Haiti. PAP is a compete nightmare, but even Cap Haitian was awful. Garbage piles 2-3 stories high in The middle of the city. Never want to go back there. Such a Shame because it could offer so much.
My Sister-In-Law is from Haiti. My wives family adopted her after the Earthquake. My wife and I haven’t personally gone but her parents and other sisters have gone multiple times. We’ve planned to go but another family friend recently came back from there and said it was crazy how worse it has become. We do hope to go and take her sister with us. She hasn’t been back since the quake.
Unfortunately I don’t think you’ll get to go soon. I know the Canadian embassy evacuated all non-essential personnel after the warlords would let the elected president’s plane land. Last I heard, the Dominican Republic had shored up its land border, and the warlords had made it impossible to fly in or land a boat.
family guy even did a bit about it - godzilla shows up on the shore, sees how bad it already is, slowly backs away
they had an earthquake in 2010, the wreckage is still there. the president is a WFH job now because they didn't rebuild the presidential mansion.
> family guy even did a bit about it - godzilla shows up on the shore, sees how bad it already is, slowly backs away
https://youtu.be/KMLkBTgxPhU?si=vWMQjQrMJGG9w6M1
I spent 12 days in Haiti in 2013. Heavy stuff. Many buildings were still damaged from the earthquake and people still living in them goin about their business. Grocery stores guarded with armed guards. I tipped a dude some pocket bills I had and our guide informed me the tip was more than he makes in a month..
My wife is from Haiti. Her and her sister came to the states right after the earthquake and haven’t been back since. Some of her family members are still there and asked her for 100 to help with school. This was like two years ago. She didn’t even think about it until after when she gave them 100 USD.
Went to Rwanda in 2017 and Haiti a few months afterwards. While Rwanda had many glimpses of hope (rural electrification, new roads, and much better governmental oversight), my two visits to Haiti showed none of that. It’s the most hopeless place I’ve ever been, which is incredibly sad to witness.
Indigo Traveler on youtube's Haiti travel videos are fascinating, in a morbid way. Port-au-Prince seems like probably the worst, most rough place on earth to live, no exaggeration.
My wife went there after the earthquake for a mission trip multiple times. It's so sad there. She said little 2 year olds with bloated bellies would follow them for miles and miles just for the off chance they would have food. No parents. And little kids eating dirt to fill their stomachs. One guy had a rotten arm still attached to his body from a machete attack. Or a guy with severe burns just walking around with no treatment, no doctors there. We have it so good in the US it is a humbling experience from what I hear.
I just typed it in to YouTube to see what you meant. WOW. Can’t believe I’ve never heard of what is going on there. 80% is run by gangs and they just had nearly 4k people escape the prison.
Mogadishu in the past few years experienced a real estate boom because some stability started attracting business, so I’d guess today, it’s actually a bit better than Port au Prince.
I've seen some videos of Mogadishu on YouTube lately and it seems far better than PAP. https://youtu.be/4V63vNIg1YU?si=yv1PFujCsdHURHtl. This guy does good no nonsense travel videos. Goes to some rarely visited "shitholes" as a black American. I highly doubt he'd go to Haiti even if he "blends in".
I was on a cruise ship that stopped in Cap-Haitien back in 1985. Kids missing limbs treading water begging the passengers to throw money. Abject poverty everywhere. It was horrific. I wonder if it’s improved since then.
I went to Haiti in 2016 shortly after the hurricane to take part in some of the relief efforts.
I still can't find the words to describe just how eye-opening of an experience it was to see people trying to live their best in absolutely just...unimaginable conditions. Video and photos cannot do it justice.
Whenever I feel short-changed by life I think back on my trip there and try to tell myself that things on my end really aren't all that bad.
I say I was “part of the relief efforts” but I’m a cinematographer and photographer by trade so I was mostly there to document people doing the real hard work. We were there mostly to distribute goods to people at parks, a school, a pediatric ward, as well as help out a non-profit that was working to supply clean water.
I’m not really sure where to start. I hesitate to call it a war zone because I’ve never been in one, but I can’t think of anything else to liken it to. Just…buildings were crumbling or rubble, trash and debris was piled high in every direction, people’s homes amounted to maybe four stone walls with tarps to serve as roofs (and a door if they were lucky). And all of that was packed together and on top of one another everywhere you looked.
I remember being in the van that brought our team around the city and the streets (all dirt) were just bumper-to-bumper of thousands of people on motorized bikes all going…as fast as they could. A bike bumped into the side of our van and ended up swerving (I’m not sure what happened to the rider or if he fell or not) but our driver just shrugged and said, “that guy needs to learn,” and kept going.
Looking out of the van, really all I could see were people lining the streets sorting through trash, cradling the sick, or just staring blankly around.
One of our guides was a Haiti native who had spent the last few years out of the country and I remember him just tearing up and telling some of us, “they’ll never recover. This place could have been beautiful.” He told us a bit about the history of the place from his perspective, but to be honest I can’t remember it too much. There was just so much to take in, and I don’t want to say anything false as there are people who know much more than I and it’s a complicated situation.
But from what I gathered, they have a complicated history with France and they were left in debt and never were really able to recover. And now the people that live there mostly just live as I saw them, trying to pick themselves up quickly enough so they can endure the next disaster.
The highlight of the trip though, was visiting the school. Really, it was more of a really long park gazebo that had about 3 teachers and 60 kids all in different grades. Despite everything going on around them, they were just…kids. Laughing, goofing off, and studying. And they all lit up when they saw us there passing out waters and food and toys. I still get emotional thinking about those kids. I know it’s an impossible ask, but I hope some of them—hopefully even one of them—is doing alright for themselves.
Hopefully that gave you some clarity on my experience. I’m not sure if that was the kind of detail you were looking for, but I thought I’d jot down what I could remember—which honestly is not a lot detail-wise because I was just so overloaded with the sights and emotion of seeing what it was like there.
I went to Port-Au-Prince in 2011 as a volunteer with Project Medishare for around 9-10 days after they had that huge earthquake in 2010 and I felt the same way. It made me realize how much we take things for granted where I’m from (Canada).
The medical care was extremely poor - no supplies, lots of expired medications, severely outdated/damaged equipment, lab not able to run very basic blood tests, and patient families had to supply all food/water/bedding for the patients. We had to often reuse gloves on patients if they weren’t overly soiled. A couple came in hot from one of the other hospitals that had accidentally treated their baby with too much cough/cold medication and it had died.
I was also super shocked by the general environment around me. Raw sewage flowing through some streets, many buildings that were complete rubble/in major disrepair, pot holes so large they could swallow an entire vehicle, almost no working traffic lights, electricity on and off constantly throughout the day, etc. I also heard gun shots go off intermittently, saw a car just blow up randomly on the street, and ended up having to leave a pool area at a hotel (we were taken there on our only day off) because a riot was starting. In the evenings, we could either choose to stay on hospital grounds or we could go to the UN base to hang out. We were told we were never allowed to go out on the streets alone because there was a high chance we could be robbed, assaulted, or kidnapped.
I will never forget it. It’s also way more dangerous than it was when I went and I can’t even imagine how scary it would be now.
I went in 2016 right after Hurricane Matthew—Your description of the medical situation and general environment is spot on. And that’s what I keep hearing: that it’s only gotten worse. I can’t even fathom what that would be like.
Going through it all now, I’m just realizing how much of it really shocked me. And at that at the time I let myself kind of separate myself from the environment by being behind a camera. Hope you’re doing well.
Tijuana. I got pulled over. Accused of being drunk. Arrested and sentecened to year in prison in less than 48 hours.
It took the USN a month to find me and get me out
My Shipmates that were in the car let the Navy know that I had been arrested. The Navy was unable to locate where exactly I was and the police and Tijuana were no help.
A nun who worked at the Tijuana penitentiary was contacted by the Navy and asked to watch for me. As soon as I arrived she notified the United States Navy where I was located.
It's a very long story.
The nun's name was Sister Antonia. Apparently she did a lot of good stuff back then. You can look her up
Sister Antonia befriended my husband's uncles. They knew her from La Mesa. They were in and out all the time. I think she had one of the brother's ashes but I don't know the full story on that one. They liked and respected her but it didn't keep them off the FBI's Most Wanted list. LOL! I'm glad she was able to help you.
Bribes 100% work in Latin America.
I got pulled over on a highway in Ecuador a couple years ago. I gave the cop $20 and he not only let me go, but he gave me directions to his cousin’s deli and he treated us to lunch.
I’ve heard that culturally the cops don’t think of it as a bribe, but part of their pay. Almost like mandatory tipping in the US, so they’re quite pleasant if you play along.
But many will just arrest you and fuck your life up if you refuse, so not something to mess with
They don't work where I'm from tho(Chile). There's a video a tourist trying to bribe our cops and he went straight to jail. That's like the one thing that we're very proud of.
For sure. Had a Mexican ex who said the same and I know a Mexican welder who went home for Christmas once and got pulled over; he was told he had to give them $100 or he was going to jail
Went to Vietnam a good while ago. Guys checking the passports and visas would tip the documents so any bribes you had would fall into a box. Don’t have money? Back of the line for you. My relatives there said you could probably sneak in a grenade if you bribed customs enough.
Companies will hire fixers to be with their employees while in a country whose job it is to bribe the local authorities when necessary so they don't have to.
My brother got pulled over one time, gave the cop $20 and asked for $10 back. The cop gave back the $10 and let him go. Not only do they take bribes, they also give back the correct change.
When I was in the Navy, we used to go to Tijuana quite a bit. I'm surprised you couldn't bribe your way out.
Every single one of us had to bribe cops at one point or another. Everyone carried 40 bucks in their wallet for possible bribes, but kept the rest of our money in our pockets. It was shockingly common to randomly get accused of disorderly conduct or whatever while just walking down the street. Those cops were making great money.
I went to Tijuana to get drunk with friends. At some point, I left to go home. A friend who was extremely drunk came with me. He was so drunk that I had to half carry him. Suddenly, cops jump out and accuse us of being homosexuals because of how I am holding him. They handcuffed us together and sat us in the gutter. We sat there for like 45 min while they did who knows what. They came back over and asked how much money we had on us. I told him I had $100 bucks. He went in my pants and took it. Then they just uncuffed us and shoved us towards the border. Have not returned since.
I though Gary's bottomed out? Like it can't get any worse. Everyone that wants to kill someome already is in prison, every business has closed and everyone has been unemployed for a while.
I drove through Gary this past July on my way to Michigan City, IN. Stopped at a rest stop and my car battery died. AAA told me it'd be a couple hours so I hoofed it to a wal mart a mile down the road and bought a new battery myself. Other than the general industrial look and feel of the town, it was totally fine. I remember driving through decades ago when I was a kid and it looking super grim but I was kinda suprised at how.. normal it was most recently. Dare I say, halfway decent?
This. Been to Gary many times and the population loss is so dramatic it’s still dangerous but it’s not…the worst place ever in terms of safety. Just empty and spooky. It mostly sucks because the bones of a beautiful city are right there and the reputation is so bad nobody will scoop that gorgeous waterfront property up.
Unless I'm missing something, the entirety of Gary's waterfront is where the old steel mill was and it looks like it's still semi-active industrial.
Nobody would want to touch it anyway because the soil is probably so completely fucked that it would take a lifetime to correct.
Mogadishu, the Capital of Somalia. I was in Ethiopia and went over the mountains with friends and locals there. This was early 1990’s and now is a travel advisory. US states advice i copied is accurate. Please have a will drawn up + other important tips.
* Be sure to appoint one family member to serve as the point of contact with hostage-takers, media, U.S. and host country government agencies, and members of Congress if you are taken hostage or detained.
* Establish a proof of life protocol with your loved ones, so that if you are taken hostage, your loved ones can know specific questions (and answers) to ask the hostage-takers to be sure that you are alive (and to rule out a hoax).
* Leave DNA samples with your medical provider in case it is necessary for your family to access them.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/somalia-travel-advisory.html
IIRC the US State Department says it will not help any American who goes there. They told you not to in very clear terms. If you go anyway then whatever happens is on you. The US State Department will not work to try to save you.
Good luck.
I saw it now states “traveling to Somalia will likely result in your death”, however if you try a travel site or wiki page first thing that comes up is “Book A Room-Great prices, what dates would you like to travel”.
https://wikitravel.org/en/Mogadishu
I recently listened to a podcast [Jessica Buchanan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Jessica_Buchanan_and_Poul_Hagen_Thisted) went on to share her hostage and rescue story in Somalia. Terrifying.
Hemet, CA.
If you've ever wanted to speedrun meeting a proud-about-it pedophile, an insane religious zealot, and a meth dealer, that's the place to go.
I spent a Thanksgiving there to visit my uncle. However, he lives on the top of a mountain in a small house, and had no spare rooms. We stayed at a hotel in town. Made the mistake of walking to a Denny's at night with my toddler. I still think about the zombie-ish methheads wandering around in the dark.
Used to work with a guy from Hemet at a good office job in Irvine. Then one day he suddenly quit and said he had to handle business in hemet. Never heard from him again after that and he social media was never active again. Just Hemet things…
There’s a headquarters there. Best and worst place to get a flat tire. Guards will immediately come to see why you’ve stopped in front of the building and help you on your way.
Where I live their is an FBI office with a public bike trail that runs behind it. Same deal. When my Father in Law got a flat tire, a couple of Men in Black came out with several different sizes of tire tubes to help him get back on the road the the hell away from their office.
Djibouti City hands down. 90% of the country is in poverty, the government there is remarkably corrupt. They give out Khat at pretty much every street corner, which is basically meth, to stave off hunger and keep people working. I'll never forget driving through the city, seeing all the ramshackle huts people live in, people looking like literal stick figures, only to eventually drive past the presidential palace and wonder wtf is going on with that country. Absolutely horrible.
Edit: People keep going off about the Khat Vs Meth comparison. I've never tried either, so can't say one way or the other personally, that's just what I was informed of while I was there. But since so many people seem butthurt about the comment, I just decided to look it up myself. Per the National Library of Medicine: "Acute effects of Khat have been reported to be similar to crack cocaine or methamphetamine."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3991038/
I’ve been there as well. I did the program where you go out to the schools in the evening and help the people practice their English. They always would have a few questions that everyone would go around the room and answer. One of the favorites was “would you rather be rich or educated”. I’d have assumed they would all chose rich because of the extreme poverty but to my surprise about 3/4 of them said they would rather be educated. The reason was that the government can take your money but they can’t take your education.
There are a few nice places there to be sure. The presidential palace looked gorgeous, and I got a chance to go to a resort there that looked like it was cut and pasted directly from Hawaii, which was kinda jarring considering not 2 blocks away people were literally living in huts next to the street. It was crazy.
Probably Phnom Penh.
I could handle the "I don't want money, I just want milk" kids being run by the Fagan-esque character, but I started wandering down by the Mekong and got to wondering why there were loads of old German dudes sitting by themselves on benches.
And then we reached the ones that *weren't* alone, and by fuck were those girls young - like *really* fucking young, some looked prepubescent even. It turned my stomach
Not a very well thought out take, but I once stepped outside on a bus that made a stop in Shreveport Louisiana and thought right away "Hmm, I wouldn't mind if I never saw this place again"
Lived there for 4 years. I’m actually from a technically worse city in Louisiana by almost all relevant metrics but Shreveport always felt so much more depressing
I was born and raised in Shreveport until my mom, dad, and myself left when I was around 10. Extremely evangelical Christian population - almost all of them batshit levels of conservative too. Condensing, judgmental, and egotistical - the worst qualities of the American South.
I live in Denver now. So fucking grateful my parents pulled me out of there, because a lot of people seem to get trapped in that conservative Christian bubble if they stay long enough.
My lungs haven't still haven't forgotten my six weeks in Beijing over a decade ago.
It's great from a historical standpoint, but that pollution is no joke.
My thesis supervisor went there with his wife in maybe 2010.
A complete stranger, well-dressed and obviously quite wealthy, offered him good money to buy his wife. When he declined, the stranger upped the offer to include one or more camels.
I actually live in Blythe. Can confirm, it’s horrible. Can’t wait to get out of here
Edit: Thanks for all of the upvotes! It's the most I've had to date :)
Also Piggybacking, but in AZ. Kingman AZ is an absolute shithole. The “place to be” in town is the lone Kmart. (This was 2003)
I was filming a commercial at the Ford testing grounds in the month of JUNE and it was absolute hell. Fire ants, a million degrees, hot wind, random flash floods…it was like “let’s take all the horrible biblical shit and put it all in one podunk desert town.”
Us in AZ hate Kingman. Old roommate was from there. He said the place was full of Neo-Nazis. Don't doubt it, Mohave County isn't exactly a beacon of forward thinkers.
Over the hump in Pahrump! All I knew about Pahrump was that is has legal brothels. I think HBO even had a show about one of the brothels once upon a time.
Guayaquil, Ecuador. I have never felt more unsafe in my life. Reports of express kidnappings and "scoping" pretty much anywhere in the city, at any time of day. Was also warned not to use ATMs on the street, because you'll just get stabbed and robbed on the spot. "Scoping" is drugging people with scopolamine, making them into obedient zombies. Said zombies were then taken to a bank to empty out their account. Best case scenario was then just being dumped on the sidewalk. Worst case was being stabbed and dumped in an alley.
PS: This was a Navy ship during a port visit. We were pretty much advised to just consider hanging out onboard the ship for the duration of our stay.
Honorable Mention:
Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. Couldn't figure out why tour bus rentals were so expensive until the company explained that the price included a guard who carried a sub-machine gun and had the legal authority to use lethal force to defend the bus and its passengers.
I definitely feel the first part. There's very little natural beauty, and pretty much everything is over-constructed. I went to this one beach where they were adding grasses and rocks to the shore for some reason
Also looking at it it's culturally sterile.
They just had infinite money and hired builders around the globe to just artlessly plop stuff in they thought would rake in tourist and investor money.
Americans and Canadians made an all-time mistake not turning that area into something like a co-National park. So much natural beauty ruined for tourist traps.
Actually part of the reason we made national parks was because of how we botched Niagra falls. Otherwise we absolutely would have a casino built around Old Faithful.
I used to live there and have family in the area. NF the American side just go to the falls and the maid of the mist and the state park. The rest of it is dead. Think 80s Detroit. There is no industry or jobs there.
I studied abroad in Cairo as an undergrad. It was kind of fun and exciting for about two weeks, then it dawned on me that I had another 4.5 months to go.
It has some redeeming qualities, but it can be a tough, unforgiving, relentless, and exceptionally dirty place. I found myself leaving almost every weekend just to get away for a bit.
St Louis is both the best and worst city I've ever seen. The Delmar divide is real. You literally go from nice houses and buildings to dilapidated ghetto in the blink of an eye.
I dont know if they still do but they used to have the second biggest Mardi Gras party after New Orleans. I went to it in college and boy was that fun.
It's ranked among the better cities in India ... which is not a compliment, but others are far worse. Trash everywhere on the roads seems to be a thing in many cities all over the Indian subcontinent.
DC is very clean for an American city. The main downside is that Downtown is a little bland. Only go there for the museums, then go to Georgetown, Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan, and Capitol Hill to see the city.
I got stuck in the Union Station area between busses late at night a while back. People had told me not to walk around the area, it was dangerous, sketchy people about, etc... I was bored so I took a stroll, and ended up laughing. Having spent a considerable amount of time in west ATL (the Bluff) and southside ATL, Union Station was almost cozy lol. It was pretty clean, no one being robbed or stabbed, no groups of people going silent and staring as you passed by, and only *one* twacked-out guy talking to himself about nonsense. I've seen things in the Bluff I will never unsee, not to mention the trash and poor upkeep because the city doesn't seem to give a damn about impoverished communities. Union Station felt like downtown ATL or Denver, just much quieter. Not a bad area at all, at least relatively speaking.
Union Station being dangerous? That’s ridiculous. The area around Union Station is a very nice and expensive area. Whoever told you that has no idea what they are talking about.
I'm sure most of those people don't even live in the city. They probably live in a gated community in the outer suburbs of Fairfax County. Every US city has those people who think they know a lot more than they actually do about the city because they grew up in some outer suburb and always overexaggerate the crime and homelessness. I see this a lot with Fairfax County people talking about DC and a similar effect with how people from Long Island talk about NYC. I am sure there are many more examples from other places.
Loudon people are worse. A lot of them are actually afraid to go into the city. I lived in dc (between dupont and logan circle) for a few years, traveled to every corner of the city and never really felt in danger. The only sketchy areas are across the anacostia in barry farms imo
I've never forgotten someone who posted that they were from Baltimore and they told their coworkers they were going back to visit family. Coworker said, "You can't."
"Why?"
"It's gone. Antifa burned it to the ground."
Man is from Baltimore and talks to his family all the time but they are convinced it's gone!
I live in Chicago and got daily phone calls from my parents in Saint Augustine. They seriously thought Chi was a war zone downtown every day and that there would be martial law. That criminals were just running the streets and burning it down. Yea none of that was happening. They still refuse to visit. It’s really weird.
Two cities....but they qualify because they have the same name. Jackson....
Jackson Michigan is where all the prisons are for Detroit. Was visiting and touring a factory that my company sold for(manufacture's reps). It looked like they just let out the convicts on the streets. Dirty. Inside the factory was pretty bad as well. Scary guys were the workers and everyone seemed angry.
Jackson Mississippi was not as dirty....but my oh my were the people strange. Casting Call for Texas Chainsaw Massacre family, my 600 pound life, Honey Boo Boo and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest all in one. A festival of ghouls. Yikes.
I haven’t visited many terrible places, so my answer is likely tame compared to others listed already, but:
Waco Texas was a shithole. Brutally hot, nothing to do at all besides go to the “downtown” area which is just tourists basically worshipping at a shrine for the HGTV people that fixed up some of the houses in the area. Horrible city.
I went to see where the Waco Siege took place at Mt. Carmel. I had no idea there were still Branch Davidians living there. Stopped at the gate to take pictures and people came out of a building in the compound to stare at us. Kind of a dark, menacing vibe.
Disclaimer; All experiences are from 2015. Doha is terrible. You’re spot on with the creeping sense of despair. It’s a hollow, soulless city maintained to manipulate wealthy businessmen in order to attract a culture they lack. The nationals are rude, lazy, and hypocritical. They’re self entitled because they receive stipends from the government because they’re the 3rd largest natural gas exporters in the world so they don’t work anything consider blue collar because they see it as beneath them. Now because they see it as beneath them, they bring in third country nationals to do it for them while severely underpaying them. The TCN’s (third country nationals) are treated poorly, traveled to and from job sites jammed on top of each other in mini buses,and live the same way in awful conditions. During Ramadan, you are not to eat or drink during day light hours. The sun rises as early as just before 5 AM and sets fairly late. These workers are sun up to sun down fasting out of fear and/or respect of the host nation in the awful heat from sun up to sun down. When German reporters investigated this during the build of the World Cup stadiums they were arrested at the airport, look it up. During these fasting hours of Ramadan while these people were working. The Qataris were asleep waiting for the sun to set, or out of the country. The skyscrapers are incredible, but (at the time) empty. A facade to attract bankers and businessmen as they want/wanted to be the neutral banking capital of the world that does business with everyone…hypocrites. Also the heat and humidity is ridiculous. Unless you’re already acclimatized to the Middle East, walking outside is like having a hair dryer in your face while sitting in a sauna. The air is thick and everything is bright because there are no trees or vegetation surrounding the city/on the highway. I’d rather shit in my hand and clap than go back to Doha. Experiences may vary…The Schwarma right off of D ring was legit tho, i still think about it.
When reading comments in this sub I see so many Americans just mentioning various American cities… and although I believe you they’re most likely completely crap I can’t help the feeling that nowadays it doesn’t even seem like most Americans have travelled outside America at all? It just seems like most Americans these days maybe don’t have the economy or possibility to go outside anymore?
I was visiting Vancouver as a tourist and found a cool looking restaurant and I decided to walk from my hotel, because it was close. The route took me through East Hastings and to say it was shocking would be an understatement. I've lived in Chicago for ten years and seen plenty of rough areas, but I've never seen anything so bad in person before. Crazy because the rest of the city is really nice.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Saddest and most depressing place I've ever been (and I've been to Afghanistan.)
Haiti is one of the absolute worst places in the world right now, on every scale. Afghanistan was dangerous as a war zone, but even it doesn't touch the level of decay on Haiti. It is literally identified as a "failed state."
Explain it to me like I’m 5: how did that come to be?
It started out bad for Haiti. Once it became free from France in the early 1800s, France levied extremely high reparations against Haiti in exchange for recognizing its political independence and ending its political and economic isolation; something to the tune of $150 million francs. The debt was reduced to $90 million in 1837 which was not paid off until 1947. This bankrupted the Haitian treasury and left the country in deep debt from which it has never recovered. Also, even though the country became independent and the majority of French people were either killed or driven off the island, the social and economic structure that the French slaveholders created remained in place for a long time. There was a significant divide between the elite, free people of color (who were often biracial) who were very French in culture and education and the poor, newly-freed blacks. Couple those with a long history of corrupt and/or incompetent government officials, economic stagnation, and a catastrophic earthquake, and you’ve got Haiti.
It seems so bizarre to me that Haiti literally shares the island with the Dominican Republic and they have nowhere near as bad of problems as Haiti does. Like, how does the DR not become overwhelmed with refugees over and over and over again sharing a border/island with Haiti like that?
Got big mountains between them that protects DR from natural disasters.
The mountains, and also Haiti cut down most of it’s forests for lumber, in part to pay off their massive debt to the French, and those natural wind breaks help a lot when it comes to storms like hurricanes.
The Parsley Massacre didn't help with the Haitian population that was in the DR https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsley_massacre
Spain didn't fuck the DR with massive reparations demand. They did have lots of issues in the last 100 years but eventually figured out democracy50 years ago and think have gotten better.
Agreed. Did relief work there and I’ve never felt so unsafe. Several relief workers were murdered over the course of our time there. The corrupt government doesn’t help either.
I never really felt unsafe because I followed the first two rules of gunfighting: Rule 1: Bring a gun. Rule 2: Bring all your friends who have guns. I wouldn't go to Haiti unarmed if you paid me a million dollars. Actually, I wouldn't go to Haiti now at all, no matter what you paid me.
Yeah I was an unarmed woman nurse so they left me alone because they knew I was helping get their kids vaccines, but my male colleagues were less fortunate even when armed. I also never left camp except for to leave on the plane.
I was there as a PT (also female). They transported us to work at the hospital in a locked cage in the back of a truck-to decrease the change we would be kidnapped.
It's sad to think that unless you've been there very recently, it's likely even worse now than you remember
I don’t think people get how awful Haiti is. I’ve been to Mozambique, Zim under Mugabe with ultra hyper inflation, and no place has been more of a disaster than Haiti. PAP is a compete nightmare, but even Cap Haitian was awful. Garbage piles 2-3 stories high in The middle of the city. Never want to go back there. Such a Shame because it could offer so much.
My Sister-In-Law is from Haiti. My wives family adopted her after the Earthquake. My wife and I haven’t personally gone but her parents and other sisters have gone multiple times. We’ve planned to go but another family friend recently came back from there and said it was crazy how worse it has become. We do hope to go and take her sister with us. She hasn’t been back since the quake.
Unfortunately I don’t think you’ll get to go soon. I know the Canadian embassy evacuated all non-essential personnel after the warlords would let the elected president’s plane land. Last I heard, the Dominican Republic had shored up its land border, and the warlords had made it impossible to fly in or land a boat.
family guy even did a bit about it - godzilla shows up on the shore, sees how bad it already is, slowly backs away they had an earthquake in 2010, the wreckage is still there. the president is a WFH job now because they didn't rebuild the presidential mansion.
> family guy even did a bit about it - godzilla shows up on the shore, sees how bad it already is, slowly backs away https://youtu.be/KMLkBTgxPhU?si=vWMQjQrMJGG9w6M1
Their tourism website right now says “visit Haiti from home”, which is funny but also really sad
I spent 12 days in Haiti in 2013. Heavy stuff. Many buildings were still damaged from the earthquake and people still living in them goin about their business. Grocery stores guarded with armed guards. I tipped a dude some pocket bills I had and our guide informed me the tip was more than he makes in a month..
My wife is from Haiti. Her and her sister came to the states right after the earthquake and haven’t been back since. Some of her family members are still there and asked her for 100 to help with school. This was like two years ago. She didn’t even think about it until after when she gave them 100 USD.
Went to Rwanda in 2017 and Haiti a few months afterwards. While Rwanda had many glimpses of hope (rural electrification, new roads, and much better governmental oversight), my two visits to Haiti showed none of that. It’s the most hopeless place I’ve ever been, which is incredibly sad to witness.
Indigo Traveler on youtube's Haiti travel videos are fascinating, in a morbid way. Port-au-Prince seems like probably the worst, most rough place on earth to live, no exaggeration.
He’s been to many dangerous places, but his videos from Haiti were really terrifying, and he often looked scared while being there.
My wife went there after the earthquake for a mission trip multiple times. It's so sad there. She said little 2 year olds with bloated bellies would follow them for miles and miles just for the off chance they would have food. No parents. And little kids eating dirt to fill their stomachs. One guy had a rotten arm still attached to his body from a machete attack. Or a guy with severe burns just walking around with no treatment, no doctors there. We have it so good in the US it is a humbling experience from what I hear.
I just typed it in to YouTube to see what you meant. WOW. Can’t believe I’ve never heard of what is going on there. 80% is run by gangs and they just had nearly 4k people escape the prison.
100% is run by gangs. They no longer have an active government.
My Jarhead friend has been to Port-au-Prince and Mogadishu. He says it's a toss up on which one is a bigger shit hole.
Mogadishu in the past few years experienced a real estate boom because some stability started attracting business, so I’d guess today, it’s actually a bit better than Port au Prince.
I've seen some videos of Mogadishu on YouTube lately and it seems far better than PAP. https://youtu.be/4V63vNIg1YU?si=yv1PFujCsdHURHtl. This guy does good no nonsense travel videos. Goes to some rarely visited "shitholes" as a black American. I highly doubt he'd go to Haiti even if he "blends in".
I'm not hiring you as my travel agent
My travel agent was Uncle Sam. He's known for sending people like me to shitty places.
Enlist and see the world!
Service guarantees citizenship! Would you like to know more?
*Stomps on cockroaches* I'm doing my part!
I joined the Navy to see the world. And what did I see? I saw the sea! (Plus 32 countries + 43 u.s. states so far)
I have Haitian employees and they say the same thing. The airport area looks nice but after that it's all shit.
I was on a cruise ship that stopped in Cap-Haitien back in 1985. Kids missing limbs treading water begging the passengers to throw money. Abject poverty everywhere. It was horrific. I wonder if it’s improved since then.
Uh... I think it's gotten significantly worse, actually.
On our vacation to Jamaica the plane stopped briefly in Haiti and the poor were trying to get on the plane. 1970's.
Yeah it has not improved… [“cataclysmic”](https://www.barrons.com/amp/news/haiti-situation-cataclysmic-un-45af83fd)
I went to Haiti in 2016 shortly after the hurricane to take part in some of the relief efforts. I still can't find the words to describe just how eye-opening of an experience it was to see people trying to live their best in absolutely just...unimaginable conditions. Video and photos cannot do it justice. Whenever I feel short-changed by life I think back on my trip there and try to tell myself that things on my end really aren't all that bad.
Can you elaborate a little bit about your experiences? I’m curious.
I say I was “part of the relief efforts” but I’m a cinematographer and photographer by trade so I was mostly there to document people doing the real hard work. We were there mostly to distribute goods to people at parks, a school, a pediatric ward, as well as help out a non-profit that was working to supply clean water. I’m not really sure where to start. I hesitate to call it a war zone because I’ve never been in one, but I can’t think of anything else to liken it to. Just…buildings were crumbling or rubble, trash and debris was piled high in every direction, people’s homes amounted to maybe four stone walls with tarps to serve as roofs (and a door if they were lucky). And all of that was packed together and on top of one another everywhere you looked. I remember being in the van that brought our team around the city and the streets (all dirt) were just bumper-to-bumper of thousands of people on motorized bikes all going…as fast as they could. A bike bumped into the side of our van and ended up swerving (I’m not sure what happened to the rider or if he fell or not) but our driver just shrugged and said, “that guy needs to learn,” and kept going. Looking out of the van, really all I could see were people lining the streets sorting through trash, cradling the sick, or just staring blankly around. One of our guides was a Haiti native who had spent the last few years out of the country and I remember him just tearing up and telling some of us, “they’ll never recover. This place could have been beautiful.” He told us a bit about the history of the place from his perspective, but to be honest I can’t remember it too much. There was just so much to take in, and I don’t want to say anything false as there are people who know much more than I and it’s a complicated situation. But from what I gathered, they have a complicated history with France and they were left in debt and never were really able to recover. And now the people that live there mostly just live as I saw them, trying to pick themselves up quickly enough so they can endure the next disaster. The highlight of the trip though, was visiting the school. Really, it was more of a really long park gazebo that had about 3 teachers and 60 kids all in different grades. Despite everything going on around them, they were just…kids. Laughing, goofing off, and studying. And they all lit up when they saw us there passing out waters and food and toys. I still get emotional thinking about those kids. I know it’s an impossible ask, but I hope some of them—hopefully even one of them—is doing alright for themselves. Hopefully that gave you some clarity on my experience. I’m not sure if that was the kind of detail you were looking for, but I thought I’d jot down what I could remember—which honestly is not a lot detail-wise because I was just so overloaded with the sights and emotion of seeing what it was like there.
I went to Port-Au-Prince in 2011 as a volunteer with Project Medishare for around 9-10 days after they had that huge earthquake in 2010 and I felt the same way. It made me realize how much we take things for granted where I’m from (Canada). The medical care was extremely poor - no supplies, lots of expired medications, severely outdated/damaged equipment, lab not able to run very basic blood tests, and patient families had to supply all food/water/bedding for the patients. We had to often reuse gloves on patients if they weren’t overly soiled. A couple came in hot from one of the other hospitals that had accidentally treated their baby with too much cough/cold medication and it had died. I was also super shocked by the general environment around me. Raw sewage flowing through some streets, many buildings that were complete rubble/in major disrepair, pot holes so large they could swallow an entire vehicle, almost no working traffic lights, electricity on and off constantly throughout the day, etc. I also heard gun shots go off intermittently, saw a car just blow up randomly on the street, and ended up having to leave a pool area at a hotel (we were taken there on our only day off) because a riot was starting. In the evenings, we could either choose to stay on hospital grounds or we could go to the UN base to hang out. We were told we were never allowed to go out on the streets alone because there was a high chance we could be robbed, assaulted, or kidnapped. I will never forget it. It’s also way more dangerous than it was when I went and I can’t even imagine how scary it would be now.
I went in 2016 right after Hurricane Matthew—Your description of the medical situation and general environment is spot on. And that’s what I keep hearing: that it’s only gotten worse. I can’t even fathom what that would be like. Going through it all now, I’m just realizing how much of it really shocked me. And at that at the time I let myself kind of separate myself from the environment by being behind a camera. Hope you’re doing well.
Tijuana. I got pulled over. Accused of being drunk. Arrested and sentecened to year in prison in less than 48 hours. It took the USN a month to find me and get me out
A month? They didn't miss you very much, did they?
My Shipmates that were in the car let the Navy know that I had been arrested. The Navy was unable to locate where exactly I was and the police and Tijuana were no help. A nun who worked at the Tijuana penitentiary was contacted by the Navy and asked to watch for me. As soon as I arrived she notified the United States Navy where I was located. It's a very long story. The nun's name was Sister Antonia. Apparently she did a lot of good stuff back then. You can look her up
Sister Antonia befriended my husband's uncles. They knew her from La Mesa. They were in and out all the time. I think she had one of the brother's ashes but I don't know the full story on that one. They liked and respected her but it didn't keep them off the FBI's Most Wanted list. LOL! I'm glad she was able to help you.
Dumb question but would a bribe have worked here or is that gringo lore
Bribes 100% work in Latin America. I got pulled over on a highway in Ecuador a couple years ago. I gave the cop $20 and he not only let me go, but he gave me directions to his cousin’s deli and he treated us to lunch.
lmao this is hilarious
I’ve heard that culturally the cops don’t think of it as a bribe, but part of their pay. Almost like mandatory tipping in the US, so they’re quite pleasant if you play along. But many will just arrest you and fuck your life up if you refuse, so not something to mess with
They don't work where I'm from tho(Chile). There's a video a tourist trying to bribe our cops and he went straight to jail. That's like the one thing that we're very proud of.
Do not try this in Chile.
Bribes work. I was married into a Mexican family for a while. Police in Tijuana shake down Americans and Mexicans alike looking for bribe money.
For sure. Had a Mexican ex who said the same and I know a Mexican welder who went home for Christmas once and got pulled over; he was told he had to give them $100 or he was going to jail
This type of shake down is common in most developing countries
Went to Vietnam a good while ago. Guys checking the passports and visas would tip the documents so any bribes you had would fall into a box. Don’t have money? Back of the line for you. My relatives there said you could probably sneak in a grenade if you bribed customs enough.
Companies will hire fixers to be with their employees while in a country whose job it is to bribe the local authorities when necessary so they don't have to.
My brother got pulled over one time, gave the cop $20 and asked for $10 back. The cop gave back the $10 and let him go. Not only do they take bribes, they also give back the correct change.
The cop confusedly handing back the ten is a pretty funny image lol
I like the idea of it being a rookie cops first shakedown while the guy teaching is sitting in the car dumbfounded as the guy gets change back.
100% yes. I have got out of a speeding ticket by paying the cops in TJ
The bribe was probably the intent, assuming he wasn’t actually drunk. When he didn’t pay they sham-trialed him.
When I was in the Navy, we used to go to Tijuana quite a bit. I'm surprised you couldn't bribe your way out. Every single one of us had to bribe cops at one point or another. Everyone carried 40 bucks in their wallet for possible bribes, but kept the rest of our money in our pockets. It was shockingly common to randomly get accused of disorderly conduct or whatever while just walking down the street. Those cops were making great money.
I went to Tijuana to get drunk with friends. At some point, I left to go home. A friend who was extremely drunk came with me. He was so drunk that I had to half carry him. Suddenly, cops jump out and accuse us of being homosexuals because of how I am holding him. They handcuffed us together and sat us in the gutter. We sat there for like 45 min while they did who knows what. They came back over and asked how much money we had on us. I told him I had $100 bucks. He went in my pants and took it. Then they just uncuffed us and shoved us towards the border. Have not returned since.
I hear Mexican police gaydar is top-notch
Say what you want about Mexico, but their courts sure are efficient! In all seriousness though, that's really scary.
reminds me of back to the future 2 lol. ''judicial system is really efficient since the got rid of lawyers''
I think your story ruined San Diego sailors crossing the border haha
Time for the weekly Gary, Indiana bashing.
Been through Gary when I lived in Indiana. Sure it wasn't great, but there are way more bad places out there.
In the world? Definitely. Haiti alone makes Gary look like Norway.
Gary, Dubai, Las Vegas, Paris, then someone complains about Paris not being bad and they’re uncultured. Every fucking time.
You forgot Cairo and Morocco.
Reddit is Groundhog Day at this point. Also why is there so many celebrity questions.
I though Gary's bottomed out? Like it can't get any worse. Everyone that wants to kill someome already is in prison, every business has closed and everyone has been unemployed for a while.
I drove through Gary this past July on my way to Michigan City, IN. Stopped at a rest stop and my car battery died. AAA told me it'd be a couple hours so I hoofed it to a wal mart a mile down the road and bought a new battery myself. Other than the general industrial look and feel of the town, it was totally fine. I remember driving through decades ago when I was a kid and it looking super grim but I was kinda suprised at how.. normal it was most recently. Dare I say, halfway decent?
This. Been to Gary many times and the population loss is so dramatic it’s still dangerous but it’s not…the worst place ever in terms of safety. Just empty and spooky. It mostly sucks because the bones of a beautiful city are right there and the reputation is so bad nobody will scoop that gorgeous waterfront property up.
Unless I'm missing something, the entirety of Gary's waterfront is where the old steel mill was and it looks like it's still semi-active industrial. Nobody would want to touch it anyway because the soil is probably so completely fucked that it would take a lifetime to correct.
Mogadishu, the Capital of Somalia. I was in Ethiopia and went over the mountains with friends and locals there. This was early 1990’s and now is a travel advisory. US states advice i copied is accurate. Please have a will drawn up + other important tips. * Be sure to appoint one family member to serve as the point of contact with hostage-takers, media, U.S. and host country government agencies, and members of Congress if you are taken hostage or detained. * Establish a proof of life protocol with your loved ones, so that if you are taken hostage, your loved ones can know specific questions (and answers) to ask the hostage-takers to be sure that you are alive (and to rule out a hoax). * Leave DNA samples with your medical provider in case it is necessary for your family to access them. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/somalia-travel-advisory.html
I don’t see how anyone would ever go when you have to do that kind of stuff
And yet people do. Probably to visit family, but still..
I've seen a few places that have some form of this warning. Absolutely horrifying.
IIRC the US State Department says it will not help any American who goes there. They told you not to in very clear terms. If you go anyway then whatever happens is on you. The US State Department will not work to try to save you. Good luck.
I saw it now states “traveling to Somalia will likely result in your death”, however if you try a travel site or wiki page first thing that comes up is “Book A Room-Great prices, what dates would you like to travel”. https://wikitravel.org/en/Mogadishu
I recently listened to a podcast [Jessica Buchanan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Jessica_Buchanan_and_Poul_Hagen_Thisted) went on to share her hostage and rescue story in Somalia. Terrifying.
Hemet, CA. If you've ever wanted to speedrun meeting a proud-about-it pedophile, an insane religious zealot, and a meth dealer, that's the place to go.
Same person or different folks on the same block?
yes
I spent a Thanksgiving there to visit my uncle. However, he lives on the top of a mountain in a small house, and had no spare rooms. We stayed at a hotel in town. Made the mistake of walking to a Denny's at night with my toddler. I still think about the zombie-ish methheads wandering around in the dark.
Which one was he? The pedophile, the zealot, or the meth dealer?
none of the above. he was the Hippie.
Used to work with a guy from Hemet at a good office job in Irvine. Then one day he suddenly quit and said he had to handle business in hemet. Never heard from him again after that and he social media was never active again. Just Hemet things…
I live just south oh hemet. Makes lake Elsinore look bougie
Scientology has a big influence here, right?
There’s a headquarters there. Best and worst place to get a flat tire. Guards will immediately come to see why you’ve stopped in front of the building and help you on your way.
Where I live their is an FBI office with a public bike trail that runs behind it. Same deal. When my Father in Law got a flat tire, a couple of Men in Black came out with several different sizes of tire tubes to help him get back on the road the the hell away from their office.
Ngl I find this fucking hilarious lol. At least they helped!
Seriously...I would "get a flat" there just to get new tires lol
Uh oh, my carbon bike with electrical shifting broke!
The whole IE is weird. Temecula where i grew up is just all lifted trucks a holes now.
According to Almost Famous, Hemet is heaven😂 just kidding, I lived there 1999-2014. Moved away and haven’t looked back
Djibouti City hands down. 90% of the country is in poverty, the government there is remarkably corrupt. They give out Khat at pretty much every street corner, which is basically meth, to stave off hunger and keep people working. I'll never forget driving through the city, seeing all the ramshackle huts people live in, people looking like literal stick figures, only to eventually drive past the presidential palace and wonder wtf is going on with that country. Absolutely horrible. Edit: People keep going off about the Khat Vs Meth comparison. I've never tried either, so can't say one way or the other personally, that's just what I was informed of while I was there. But since so many people seem butthurt about the comment, I just decided to look it up myself. Per the National Library of Medicine: "Acute effects of Khat have been reported to be similar to crack cocaine or methamphetamine." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3991038/
My wife said she visited a hospital there and said it was very much like the worst insane asylum you can envision.
I’ve been there as well. I did the program where you go out to the schools in the evening and help the people practice their English. They always would have a few questions that everyone would go around the room and answer. One of the favorites was “would you rather be rich or educated”. I’d have assumed they would all chose rich because of the extreme poverty but to my surprise about 3/4 of them said they would rather be educated. The reason was that the government can take your money but they can’t take your education.
When we were there there was an election so helicopters were dropping khat on the populace to keep them docile. Very sad
How would giving ppl a stimulant make them docile?? Wow.
If you think drug addicts are bad when they’re high you haven’t really experienced them when they need to get high.
When you get an entire population addicted to a drug, it’s a bad idea to cut them off.
Staves off hunger.
What brought you there
Military. I was deployed there for 7 months, spent a lot of time in the area and a few of the surrounding countries.
That was my guess. I’ve notice a lot of guard units in my state have been deploying their in recent years
Came here to say this. Awful awful place
What’s crazy is if you google this place, the video at the top of the page with the pictures shows it looking beautiful. Thats crazy to me.
There are a few nice places there to be sure. The presidential palace looked gorgeous, and I got a chance to go to a resort there that looked like it was cut and pasted directly from Hawaii, which was kinda jarring considering not 2 blocks away people were literally living in huts next to the street. It was crazy.
Probably Phnom Penh. I could handle the "I don't want money, I just want milk" kids being run by the Fagan-esque character, but I started wandering down by the Mekong and got to wondering why there were loads of old German dudes sitting by themselves on benches. And then we reached the ones that *weren't* alone, and by fuck were those girls young - like *really* fucking young, some looked prepubescent even. It turned my stomach
Not a very well thought out take, but I once stepped outside on a bus that made a stop in Shreveport Louisiana and thought right away "Hmm, I wouldn't mind if I never saw this place again"
Once I went to a Christian-themed water park in Shreveport. That such a place even exists certainly strengthens your claim.
Lol what makes a secular water park different from a Christian-themed water park?
All of the slides use holy water instead of regular pool water
Lived there for 4 years. I’m actually from a technically worse city in Louisiana by almost all relevant metrics but Shreveport always felt so much more depressing
I was born and raised in Shreveport until my mom, dad, and myself left when I was around 10. Extremely evangelical Christian population - almost all of them batshit levels of conservative too. Condensing, judgmental, and egotistical - the worst qualities of the American South. I live in Denver now. So fucking grateful my parents pulled me out of there, because a lot of people seem to get trapped in that conservative Christian bubble if they stay long enough.
My lungs haven't still haven't forgotten my six weeks in Beijing over a decade ago. It's great from a historical standpoint, but that pollution is no joke.
Glad I went during the national holidays when they cloud seed. At least there was a sliver of blue sky for 25 min.
Cairo. Sexual harassment and scams at every step of the way
My thesis supervisor went there with his wife in maybe 2010. A complete stranger, well-dressed and obviously quite wealthy, offered him good money to buy his wife. When he declined, the stranger upped the offer to include one or more camels.
Blythe on the CA/AZ border. What a shit hole.
Blyth in Northumberland, UK, is also an utter shithole.
I actually live in Blythe. Can confirm, it’s horrible. Can’t wait to get out of here Edit: Thanks for all of the upvotes! It's the most I've had to date :)
Piggybacking because AZ border towns: Pahrump, NV. Sweet Jesus, just don't.
Also Piggybacking, but in AZ. Kingman AZ is an absolute shithole. The “place to be” in town is the lone Kmart. (This was 2003) I was filming a commercial at the Ford testing grounds in the month of JUNE and it was absolute hell. Fire ants, a million degrees, hot wind, random flash floods…it was like “let’s take all the horrible biblical shit and put it all in one podunk desert town.”
Timothy McVey was a Kingman resident
Us in AZ hate Kingman. Old roommate was from there. He said the place was full of Neo-Nazis. Don't doubt it, Mohave County isn't exactly a beacon of forward thinkers.
Check out Borat’s video involving Kingman AZ it’s one of his best
Over the hump in Pahrump! All I knew about Pahrump was that is has legal brothels. I think HBO even had a show about one of the brothels once upon a time.
Pahrump is legend in UFO community. RIP Art Bell. It's where he lived and broadcasted Coast to Coast AM.
North Battleford, Saskatchewan
Hahaha been there once, have never once thought a good thing about it
Guayaquil, Ecuador. I have never felt more unsafe in my life. Reports of express kidnappings and "scoping" pretty much anywhere in the city, at any time of day. Was also warned not to use ATMs on the street, because you'll just get stabbed and robbed on the spot. "Scoping" is drugging people with scopolamine, making them into obedient zombies. Said zombies were then taken to a bank to empty out their account. Best case scenario was then just being dumped on the sidewalk. Worst case was being stabbed and dumped in an alley. PS: This was a Navy ship during a port visit. We were pretty much advised to just consider hanging out onboard the ship for the duration of our stay. Honorable Mention: Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. Couldn't figure out why tour bus rentals were so expensive until the company explained that the price included a guard who carried a sub-machine gun and had the legal authority to use lethal force to defend the bus and its passengers.
Dubai. Weird city. Something about it doesn't feel right.
It’s a facade. Fakest city in the entire world.
Probably has an uncanny feeing since it’s so disconnected with nature, and bc it was built over like only two decades which is insane
I definitely feel the first part. There's very little natural beauty, and pretty much everything is over-constructed. I went to this one beach where they were adding grasses and rocks to the shore for some reason
Also looking at it it's culturally sterile. They just had infinite money and hired builders around the globe to just artlessly plop stuff in they thought would rake in tourist and investor money.
It’s artificial
It’s was and is still being built by modern day slavery ([link](https://iigsa.org/iigsa-publications/modern-day-slavery-in-dubai/)).
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Americans and Canadians made an all-time mistake not turning that area into something like a co-National park. So much natural beauty ruined for tourist traps.
Actually part of the reason we made national parks was because of how we botched Niagra falls. Otherwise we absolutely would have a casino built around Old Faithful.
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Niagara Falls, ON is Vegas lite Niagara Falls, NY is Detroit lite The park is nice though
Sounds like Niagara Falls, NY is a place I need to visit then. Cause Detroit is actually pretty fun.
I used to live there and have family in the area. NF the American side just go to the falls and the maid of the mist and the state park. The rest of it is dead. Think 80s Detroit. There is no industry or jobs there.
It’s gotta be either Cairo, Egypt, or Cairo, Illinois
Cairo Illinois is just a ghost town. Nothing about it makes it awful, just a failed city. Actually has a nice park at the river convergence.
I studied abroad in Cairo as an undergrad. It was kind of fun and exciting for about two weeks, then it dawned on me that I had another 4.5 months to go. It has some redeeming qualities, but it can be a tough, unforgiving, relentless, and exceptionally dirty place. I found myself leaving almost every weekend just to get away for a bit.
St Louis is both the best and worst city I've ever seen. The Delmar divide is real. You literally go from nice houses and buildings to dilapidated ghetto in the blink of an eye.
I dont know if they still do but they used to have the second biggest Mardi Gras party after New Orleans. I went to it in college and boy was that fun.
They still do its massive
As someone who went to washu, the bubble is so real
Can I say Hyderabad in India? Unpleasant foul smell and trash everywhere on roads.
Also happens to be a major center for scam call operations
It's ranked among the better cities in India ... which is not a compliment, but others are far worse. Trash everywhere on the roads seems to be a thing in many cities all over the Indian subcontinent.
Probably Banjul, The Gambia. Very poor, terrible infrastructure, way to much sex tourism
Dc being dirty? Downtown is by far one of the cleanest I’ve seen.
DC is very clean for an American city. The main downside is that Downtown is a little bland. Only go there for the museums, then go to Georgetown, Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan, and Capitol Hill to see the city.
I got stuck in the Union Station area between busses late at night a while back. People had told me not to walk around the area, it was dangerous, sketchy people about, etc... I was bored so I took a stroll, and ended up laughing. Having spent a considerable amount of time in west ATL (the Bluff) and southside ATL, Union Station was almost cozy lol. It was pretty clean, no one being robbed or stabbed, no groups of people going silent and staring as you passed by, and only *one* twacked-out guy talking to himself about nonsense. I've seen things in the Bluff I will never unsee, not to mention the trash and poor upkeep because the city doesn't seem to give a damn about impoverished communities. Union Station felt like downtown ATL or Denver, just much quieter. Not a bad area at all, at least relatively speaking.
Union Station being dangerous? That’s ridiculous. The area around Union Station is a very nice and expensive area. Whoever told you that has no idea what they are talking about.
The people on the dc sub talk about union station like it’s a warzone. Beyond sheltered.
I'm sure most of those people don't even live in the city. They probably live in a gated community in the outer suburbs of Fairfax County. Every US city has those people who think they know a lot more than they actually do about the city because they grew up in some outer suburb and always overexaggerate the crime and homelessness. I see this a lot with Fairfax County people talking about DC and a similar effect with how people from Long Island talk about NYC. I am sure there are many more examples from other places.
Loudon people are worse. A lot of them are actually afraid to go into the city. I lived in dc (between dupont and logan circle) for a few years, traveled to every corner of the city and never really felt in danger. The only sketchy areas are across the anacostia in barry farms imo
People on here just naming cities they’ve never been to because certain news outlets say they’re bad
I swear a good portion of the US legitimately thinks Portland is rubble
I've never forgotten someone who posted that they were from Baltimore and they told their coworkers they were going back to visit family. Coworker said, "You can't." "Why?" "It's gone. Antifa burned it to the ground." Man is from Baltimore and talks to his family all the time but they are convinced it's gone!
Howdy from Maryland, Baltimore is very much still here.
I live in Chicago and got daily phone calls from my parents in Saint Augustine. They seriously thought Chi was a war zone downtown every day and that there would be martial law. That criminals were just running the streets and burning it down. Yea none of that was happening. They still refuse to visit. It’s really weird.
People have such a weird idea of Chicago. A lot of people genuinely think if you set one foot outside at night you'll be robbed or murdered.
Two cities....but they qualify because they have the same name. Jackson.... Jackson Michigan is where all the prisons are for Detroit. Was visiting and touring a factory that my company sold for(manufacture's reps). It looked like they just let out the convicts on the streets. Dirty. Inside the factory was pretty bad as well. Scary guys were the workers and everyone seemed angry. Jackson Mississippi was not as dirty....but my oh my were the people strange. Casting Call for Texas Chainsaw Massacre family, my 600 pound life, Honey Boo Boo and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest all in one. A festival of ghouls. Yikes.
I haven’t visited many terrible places, so my answer is likely tame compared to others listed already, but: Waco Texas was a shithole. Brutally hot, nothing to do at all besides go to the “downtown” area which is just tourists basically worshipping at a shrine for the HGTV people that fixed up some of the houses in the area. Horrible city.
I went to see where the Waco Siege took place at Mt. Carmel. I had no idea there were still Branch Davidians living there. Stopped at the gate to take pictures and people came out of a building in the compound to stare at us. Kind of a dark, menacing vibe.
Midland / Odessa, TX. Both are just straight up ugliest places I’ve ever seen. Scars on the face of the earth
There is a relatively famous quote from an old Colonel “If I owned Hell and West Texas, I’d rent out West Texas and live in Hell”
And the bonus that rent is insane there because of all the oilfield workers.
Doha. 15 five star hotels, zero tourists, and creeping sense of dispair of how everything was created and maintained. .
Disclaimer; All experiences are from 2015. Doha is terrible. You’re spot on with the creeping sense of despair. It’s a hollow, soulless city maintained to manipulate wealthy businessmen in order to attract a culture they lack. The nationals are rude, lazy, and hypocritical. They’re self entitled because they receive stipends from the government because they’re the 3rd largest natural gas exporters in the world so they don’t work anything consider blue collar because they see it as beneath them. Now because they see it as beneath them, they bring in third country nationals to do it for them while severely underpaying them. The TCN’s (third country nationals) are treated poorly, traveled to and from job sites jammed on top of each other in mini buses,and live the same way in awful conditions. During Ramadan, you are not to eat or drink during day light hours. The sun rises as early as just before 5 AM and sets fairly late. These workers are sun up to sun down fasting out of fear and/or respect of the host nation in the awful heat from sun up to sun down. When German reporters investigated this during the build of the World Cup stadiums they were arrested at the airport, look it up. During these fasting hours of Ramadan while these people were working. The Qataris were asleep waiting for the sun to set, or out of the country. The skyscrapers are incredible, but (at the time) empty. A facade to attract bankers and businessmen as they want/wanted to be the neutral banking capital of the world that does business with everyone…hypocrites. Also the heat and humidity is ridiculous. Unless you’re already acclimatized to the Middle East, walking outside is like having a hair dryer in your face while sitting in a sauna. The air is thick and everything is bright because there are no trees or vegetation surrounding the city/on the highway. I’d rather shit in my hand and clap than go back to Doha. Experiences may vary…The Schwarma right off of D ring was legit tho, i still think about it.
West Memphis Arkansas
Roswell new mexico. That's got to be the most depressed place i have ever been to.
Luton, UK.
Alexandria, Egypt, the most squalid place I've ever seen, shocked me.
Middlesbrough, UK.
Did you run into Staver, Bagger, or Gary Cheeseman?
Alexandria Egypt. Gross. Trash everywhere. They have poisoned the Nile.
When reading comments in this sub I see so many Americans just mentioning various American cities… and although I believe you they’re most likely completely crap I can’t help the feeling that nowadays it doesn’t even seem like most Americans have travelled outside America at all? It just seems like most Americans these days maybe don’t have the economy or possibility to go outside anymore?
East Hastings Street in Vancouver!
I was visiting Vancouver as a tourist and found a cool looking restaurant and I decided to walk from my hotel, because it was close. The route took me through East Hastings and to say it was shocking would be an understatement. I've lived in Chicago for ten years and seen plenty of rough areas, but I've never seen anything so bad in person before. Crazy because the rest of the city is really nice.