Where is it safe to travel?

Interactive Maphttp://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/travel-warnings/

Article http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/countries-safe-danger-travel-140344866.html

This interactive map is pretty neat. Click on a country and it will have a short explanation for the color code associated with it.

Interesting, Eric. But what about Canada???

Good catch!

I guess you shouldn't go there... or, they figured that nobody wanted to go there.

Great article, EE. Before I saw your post and had only seen the title of your post I was going to offer-up Denmark and the rest of the Norwegian countries. Expensive, but well worth it. Denmark is the only country in the world I would ever consider living in, but I'm an American girl through-and-through. Things would have to get pretty damn rough for me to bail on my country.

I'd love to see an interactive map breakdown of the US... wouldn't want any unsuspecting tourists thinking it's safe to roll up into Watts or Compton! OR on a Reservation!! Around here that can get you killed or worse pretty quick... they don't play.

There are parts of Birmingham that I won't go into... well, I would go there in the daylight and with a dependable car with plenty of gas in the tank... Passing through, y'know?

I'll bet that there are maps of the US too. I could make one, if I had the data... having been a cartographer and all. Let me look around and see what I can do.

I would also love to see a map like this within the US.

It's funny that Canada is just left out!

I've never been to Denmark. I would love to visit there. but I think it'd be too cold for me to live there. Heck, Huntsville, AL is too cold for me, lol. I really enjoyed visiting Australia. If I were ever kicked out of the USA and Australia would have me, that's where I'd go.

Good point... Australia would be a great place too, but it's way too hot there for me!

Too hot, too cold.......juuuust right! LOL.

We were in Australia in July (winter season there) and the weather was perfect. Of course, Australia is a large continent and we only saw a very small part of it. We started out in Sydney and drove up to Brisbane. Sydney is a vibrant, cosmopolitan city and we enjoyed our time there. But Sydney is a little too big for me to want to live there. Brisbane was great though. A nice sized city. Not too large, not too small.

One of my uncles went there to visit a friend right after he retired and rented a Harley for the duration (he's a biker)... I think he was there for 2-wks. He had an absolute ball and said that he plans to return someday.

Heck. I don't think it's safe to travel outside my front porch.

Good one, PB.

Neko, we were robbed in Canada the same day they took away our pepper spray at the border.

Jerks.

Learned the next day that it's legal to carry pepper spray as long as it says "bear spray" on the label.

Sorta like some of our crazy laws.

Interesting on the MId-East......I never, ever, for one nano second felt safe there!

LOL, PB. Safe for you, or for the rest of the world?

We LOVED our trip to Australia. Actually, my husband has gone there on business a few times. He's seen the other side of Australia--Perth. And I think he's been to some other city, but I cannot remember the name. He's also been to New Zealand on business and he liked it as well. But we both like Australia a lot. It is a beautiful country. It is on my list of "want to go again" trips. Next time, I'd like to spend a month there. But who knows...Australia is a long ways from here and it is not a cheap place to visit. So I don't know if we'll ever get back there. But I would sure love to.

Storm, that is too bad and yes, crazy, crazy government laws. Geez.

We have spent a good deal of time in Western Canada in British Columbia. We once drove to Alaska, up through British Columbia and through the Yukon. We never had any trouble in Canada or felt unsafe there...there is the one time we were stuck all night in our car in the middle of nowhere and I was afraid to get out of the car to pee...but not because of humans, but because of wolves and bears, lol. I didn't have any bear spray, lol!

Storm, I understand what you're saying about the Mid-East. I would love to visit the middle east--see the pyramids, buy a rug or two (or 10, lol). But I don't know that I would ever really feel safe. The house we bought when we lived in Texas had previously belonged to a former ambassador. We bought the house from his estate. He had been ambassador to several countries from the 1940s through the 1960s--including Turkey and I think Cuba. He was a career civil servant. Our neighbor in Texas, an elderly woman, had lived in her house for years and had known the ambassador and his wife very well. She told me stories that they had told her about their time in Turkey and other countries. It was fascinating. Since then, I've wanted to visit Turkey. I have no desire to visit Cuba, but Turkey has so much history. And really nice pottery!

nekochan wrote:

LOL, PB. Safe for you, or for the rest of the world?

BOTH.

Quote :

We LOVED our trip to Australia. Actually, my husband has gone there on business a few times. He's seen the other side of Australia--Perth. And I think he's been to some other city, but I cannot remember the name. He's also been to New Zealand on business and he liked it as well. But we both like Australia a lot. It is a beautiful country. It is on my list of "want to go again" trips. Next time, I'd like to spend a month there. But who knows...Australia is a long ways from here and it is not a cheap place to visit. So I don't know if we'll ever get back there. But I would sure love to.

I would love to visit Australia! Did you go to the Australian outback? That's where I so want to go. I'd love to visit Alice Springs.

No, we didn't go to the Outback. We flew into Sydney and stayed there for a few days. And then we rented a car and drove up to Brisbane. On the drive to Brisbane, we stayed in a hotel overlooking the ocean in one little town. On another stop we stayed in an isolated yurt, in the middle of a rain forest. It was so beautiful. There were no other rental yurts or people or anything nearby. All we could see all the way around the yurt was the rain forest. And then when we arrived in Brisbane we stayed in a bed and breakfast home that was owned and run by an elderly woman (in her early 80s at the time, I think). She had a beautiful old turn of the century Queensland Victorian home and she rented out several rooms as a bed and breakfast. She did all of the cooking and cleaning all on her own, from what I could tell.

I have nothing but good things to say about that trip except that we had a red-eye from Tokyo --- we flew all night and arrived in Sydney in the morning. We couldn't check into our hotel until the afternoon. I was so worn out by the end of that first day. But I have no one to blame but myself. I chose that flight because of the low price. The hotel staff was nice, they let us store our bags in one of their rooms before our check in time. If I did it again, I would probably take the same flight and go ahead and pay the extra cost for a hotel room for the morning of our arrival and then just rest for a few hours after we arrived. Oh well, things you learn when traveling. lol. That first evening, we checked into our room and then went and looked for something to eat. We found a KFC and that looked good to us Americans. I tried to order a 2 piece chicken meal. I just wanted to eat my chicken and then crawl into bed, lol. The girl behind the counter was an Indian girl and she and I had trouble understanding each other. I couldn't really understand her English. And she was speaking in English, I just didn't understand her. Understanding the English of Indians speaking with an Australian accent was a challenge for me. I don't think I've ever had as much trouble ordering a simple dinner as I did that night in Sydney. But truth is, I was so tired and that probably didn't help me understand her or her understand me.

This is where we stayed in the rain forest. I soooo want to go back. It was the best trip hubby and I have ever had.
http://www.wollumbinpalms.com.au/air_lodge.php

Hey Neko,

We were robbed in Whistler of all places. I found Canada strange. We wound up in some hokey town where the people just stared. Very odd, like we were in the Twilight Zone. No, I would not go back.

Turkey is amazing. We did the Trojan Horse, Istanbul, much else and I never felt threatened there. We were approached by some who were convinced we were American. When we asked "how"? They responded that we had the "free walk". How very strange?

The mid-east is an entirely different animal. No woman in her right mind would travel there without a male escort!

Many, many stories on the mid-east, but in summary, don't go without a man!

After living in Japan for awhile, I could spot Americans by their walk, clothing, way of moving...or something. Cannot really explain it. We went to Bali on vacation and were staying in a hotel where it was mostly German tourists (Our son was around 11 or so at the time and we had to be careful of the topless German women around the pool area, lol) Anyway, we seemed to be the only Americans there. One morning, a couple of days into our stay, we were having breakfast at the hotel and spotted a family --mom, dad and couple of kids--walking across the lawn, some 100 feet or so away from us. We could not hear them talking but we were watching them and I told my husband--Look, THEY are Americans! He agreed that they appeared to be Americans. Later that day or the next, we were at the pool (the Germans were out sightseeing, I guess) and here comes the same family...and they were Americans. Americans from Chicago, living in Thailand at the time. We hung out and talked with them at the pool for a couple of hours. I cannot explain it, but it was SO good to communicate with other Americans.

stormwatch89 wrote:

Good one, PB.

Neko, we were robbed in Canada the same day they took away our pepper spray at the border.

Jerks.

Learned the next day that it's legal to carry pepper spray as long as it says "bear spray" on the label.

Sorta like some of our crazy laws.

Interesting on the MId-East......I never, ever, for one nano second felt safe there!

I will never go back to Canada. I have all sorts of offensive names that I call that stupid country and it's people (even though my oldest brother lives up there and it looks like he's gonna marry a Canadian French Fry), and I often jokingly say that I am a Canadian racist. Here's why:

When I was living in West-by-God-Virginia (holla, PB!) my girlfriend said, "Hey, why don't we drive up to Canada and see Niagara Falls and some other cool shit?" I said, great... she knows me, I am ALWAYS up for a road trip!

We get to the border and those goddamn Canadian French Fries COMPLETELY stripped my truck. I mean COMPLETELY. They tore out the front seats, they tore off the door panels, they took off the little panels that used to be in the bed of old Toyota pickups... needed a special wrench to get them off. Anyone who knows anything about mechanics will know that unless this shit is done properly by a real mechanic (i.e. torqued properly), your rig will never be the same again... and it wasn't. She creaked and made all kinds of little squeaks after they put her back together again, the clumsy jerks. I don't know if they were looking for drugs or guns or what, but anyone who has ever seen a picture of me knows that I look like neither a drug smuggler nor a gun smuggler.

I was pretty pissed, but shook it off, we enjoyed our little roadtrip up there and I figured "hey, I randomly got border-f*ed and it was just bad luck... no bad feelings, Cana-DUH!"

Then a few months later my girlfriend proposed that we go back up to Cana-DUH but to some other destination (I now forget where). I said sure... again, I'd left my bad feelings at the border. SAME GODDAMN THING HAPPENED. I told her I wanted to turn around and go home right as soon as they were done, she said no, we came all this way, let's go where we planned... I caved in and we went on the trip but I swore that I would never again darken Cana-DUH's door. I hate that stupid country. It's too bad because I'd like to go to the Canadian Rockies.

After we got home and I cooled down I figured that my truck must have been flagged by something the previous owner had done. Other than that, I've no reasonable explanation for why the hell that happened to me.

Good grief, riceme. I agree that your truck must have fit some profile or something. I have not been to that part of Canada. We never had any problems at the border into British Columbia except for the time that the Canadians wanted us to prove that our then 3 year old daughter was really ours. Again, I think we must have fit some sort of profile or something, but when we didn't have a birth certificate or any way of proving she belonged to us, one of the border agents asked our daughter: What is your father's name? Our daughter replied "Daddy?" and they let us go, on the spot.

nekochan wrote:

After living in Japan for awhile, I could spot Americans by their walk, clothing, way of moving...or something. Cannot really explain it. We went to Bali on vacation and were staying in a hotel where it was mostly German tourists (Our son was around 11 or so at the time and we had to be careful of the topless German women around the pool area, lol) Anyway, we seemed to be the only Americans there. One morning, a couple of days into our stay, we were having breakfast at the hotel and spotted a family --mom, dad and couple of kids--walking across the lawn, some 100 feet or so away from us. We could not hear them talking but we were watching them and I told my husband--Look, THEY are Americans! He agreed that they appeared to be Americans. Later that day or the next, we were at the pool (the Germans were out sightseeing, I guess) and here comes the same family...and they were Americans. Americans from Chicago, living in Thailand at the time. We hung out and talked with them at the pool for a couple of hours. I cannot explain it, but it was SO good to communicate with other Americans.

YES, Neko, isn't it funny how your eye becomes trained to be able to spot Americans from 30-yards off?? I have spent some time thinking about it, because I can also spot a European from 30-yds off, and oddly people often mistake me for being European (I think it's the glasses and how I dress sometimes, like for work).

Here's my off-the-cuff list of things that scream "American":

style of dress, esp. different style/cut of jeans
ballcaps
loud-talkers (even if you can't distinguish what they're saying)
expressive talkers (talk w/hands)
non-European or Asian-style of glasses
shoes
women's fingernails (the really long painted kind)
heavy make up
haircut or style - men & women
totally different style of jewelry

Do you agree with my observations??

I get really excited when I see Europeans visiting here and it's probably the one time that I will actually approach anyone and introduce myself... it's such a small town, but w/the train and all our turbines we get a fair amount come through.

You are very perceptive, riceme. All of the things you mentioned are spot on. The hand movements, the walking gait, the LOUDNESS of Americans. I still cringe sometimes when we go out and there are very loud Americans nearby. Why are Americans so loud? Even American babies (over about 6 months of age) are louder than babies in other countries...how can that be???

Yes! The first thing I thought of was the walking gait then I neglected to put it on my list. Excellent catch.

I agree that it is strange that even American babies are somehow louder than European or Asian babies! /WEIRD!/ And I also cringe when I am in Europe or with a bunch of Europeans and hear loud Americans nearby. A little embarrassing. And because of my 30+% hearing loss I often talk loud, particularly when there's a lot of background noise, and am always sure to explain and apologize for it.

K- I'm always criticized for being too soft spoken.....so there!

Love the Cana-Duh..Riceme. What I found soooooooo bizarre is that while they confiscated our pepper spray (little purse size gizmos) we were able to buy gallon sprays the next day labeled "bear spray".

Neko, tell me about Bali! Have not been, but my next door neighbor always told me Bora Bora was his favorite spot! Better than PB, I am assuming?

Hey girls, we just swing "American"!