Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dp777]

mannenberg, Cape Town. But Itaewon is pretty disgusting over the weekend..

[The Gipkik]

In the Deep South of Thailand. Watching TV in my apartment, a huge explosion goes off about 200 meters away. I run outside to the entrance of Carrefour Shopping Center. Five people were flattened, two dead. I ran right up to the entrance, a bit back mind you, and could see that the bomb had been in the garbage can.

A few months later, sitting on my balcony in a different apartment, same city. Another bomb blasts. About 300 meters away. Downtown core. Motorcycle bomb. Several dead including a Canadian teacher.

On a lesser note. I was lying on a carpet relaxing in my apartment. Same city. Fell asleep, only to be awoken by a large and very angry scorpion about 3 feet away. When I moved, it lifted its tail and started strutting towards me. I jumped up like a flash, got a mop from a corner and flattened the poor guy like a pancake. What a nasty mess. It felt like murder. No more lying on the carpet for me. I was living on the ground floor and I guess the maid who had cleaned my place once a week had left the door open.

[lizlemon]

narrowly missed a bombing at the kabul airport

[SeoulMan99]

Hands down Guatemala City. I have spent quite a bit of time in Mexico city, and I did have a dangerous experience there, but Guatemala City seemed quite a bit more dangerous and aggressive than did D.F. My overall time spent in a place where I felt in danger was Guatemala City. Following that was portions of rural Guatemala where there were rebel guerillas, which have kidnapped tourists before. I never came in contact with them, so it was mostly worrying about the possibility of it happening since we were in an area where they carried more power than the local law enforcement. That said I loved Antigua, Guatemala and Lake Atitlan and I recommend visiting. Just be safe.

While in D.F. (Mexico City) me and a friend went to a bar and made friends with some people and did an EXTREMELY stupid thing by riding with them to another bar across the city. I do not recommend this! There have been a lot of tourists in DF who have been robbed or held and beaten for days while being forced to withdraw $ from their ATM. Well, we ended up half way across the city drunk out of our minds at 4am and we decided to walk, yes walk, back to the hotel. That was an adventure, and we made it safe, though there were sketchy situations on that walk home. Thankfully nothing happened to us, and I'm glad I'm not that crazy anymore. Those were the days.

[balzor]

[NovaKart]

The places I've been with the worst reputations are El Salvador and Nicaragua. Granada is the only place I've been to in Nicaragua. It was pretty safe. It was such a change coming from Costa Rica since, although Costa Rica has a reputation as a tourist haven, San Jose has a big problem with crime and it's a huge concern there. Granada was really relaxed although a lot more poor. I know some of you mentioned Managua was much worse.

I was only in El Salvador for a weekend, drove in with some friends from Guatemala. It didn't seem that bad to me at the time but like I said I wasn't there for long and didn't see much. The worst thing I remember is street kids doing the firebreathing trick with kerosene and begging for money. Some parts of San Salvador were actually kind of nice.

I'd say Guatemala City was the most dangerous place I've been. I spent about 3 months there in 1999. I was lucky nothing happened to me. Once I borrowed a friend's car and was lost there for 4 hours (I'm terrible with directions).

Never had any problems in Istanbul really. It certainly has its seedy side but I think it's generally easy to avoid. I had a friend who got in a fight with an African pot dealer there when she tried to buy some weed but she got away. Actually I did have a problem there once, I slept with a dodgy guy who later (falsely) claimed I had stolen money from him and claimed to have all these mafia connections and I found out some pretty scary things about him. But this was more of a personal problem not just a random thing. Lesson learned there, don't go to bed with just anyone.

I was in Tbilisi, Georgia shortly before the war. There was some political unrest there but it wasn't that dangerous really. It didn't seem to have much of a crime problem either. Not sure what it's like now. It's an amazing city.

Perhaps the most dangerous situation I was in, when I was 13 I was with my family in Chicago and our rental car broke down right outside of Cabrini Green. No taxis would pick us up of course. My stepmom and her mother are black so that probably added to the problem. Finally someone picked us up after seeing the rest of us and noticing we didn't look like the usual residents. He even remarked on it and I think my stepmom was so relieved she didn't even care.

[SeoulMan99]

[balzor]

I guess I can count all of the Texas-Mexico border towns since I been to them all. They weren't so bad back then, but now they are warzones.

[SeoulMan99]

[NovaKart]

[creeper1]

[balzor]

[NovaKart]

[musashij]

Southern Lebanon at all times especially in 06 when all of Lebanon was constantly bombed by Israel including the airport in Beirut. Was quite scary being an American there. At the same time i could be in trouble because of my country being allies with the aggressor. I saw a building get hit with a bomb from on the rooftop of my friends' house. it was a quite scary and interesting to be there.

[nautilus]

Downtown Johannesburg in 1996. That was where I felt the least safe.

Strange because I've been in 3 warzones. None of them had the feel of Joburg somehow.

Interestingly Korea is the place I've always felt the safest anywhere in the world. Even standing only a few km away from artillery firing at the DMZ.