What are most dangerous, exotic or remote places you have ever visited?

oulfecker

I just thought I'd register to post this for the craic:

What are the most dangerous, exotic or remote places you have ever visited?

Mine are as follows:

Dangerous:

Afghanistan - once

Egypt - four times

Iran - twice

Iraq - once

Israel/West Bank - four times

Gaza - once on aid work

North Korea - once on a tour of Pyongyang in 2015 from Beijing

Saudi Arabia - three times

Ukraine - five times


Exotic:

Too many to mention, Nuuk in Greenland being the main one.


Remote:

Also too many to mention, Leitrim being the main one;).

PM me if you have any interests about my unusual visits.

What are yours?

Don Kiddick

Knocknaheeny...shaved heads, battered faces, hollow junkie eyes....and that was just the secondary schoolgirls !

MilesMorales1

Tallaght is a dangerous, wild place. I wouldn't venture back there in a hurry.

corner of hells

Bingo in the Cootehill community centre , pretty certain the Banjo player out of deliverance was playing in the background.

ddub11

Turkey is somewhere where i never felt comfortable,when i was there.

The Shankill Road in Belfast was pretty edgy back in the day.

Was in Mostar in Bosnia in the early 2000s, still pretty much as it was after the Croatian siege in the mid 90s.

punisher5112

Bray

greysheep

Exotic: Lyreacrumpane

CelticRambler

Parc du Mercantour in Eastern France, where even the landscape tries to kill you when you think you're minding your own business.

lifeandtimes

oulfecker wrote: »

PM me if you have any interests about my unusual visits

Nice try army recruiter

Don Kiddick

greysheep wrote: »

Exotic: Lyreacrumpane

To a 5yo who's just come from London and spent his first 2 months in Ireland out in Lyre..you can be damn sure it was exotic. .. except for Betty the goat. ..I hated that bastard and as a teenager, when I was told she died I actually cheered

greysheep

greysheep wrote: »

Exotic: Lyreacrumpane

Wait till you see Knocknagoshel...

gifted

Don Kiddick wrote: »

Knocknaheeny...shaved heads, battered faces, hollow junkie eyes....and that was just the secondary schoolgirls !

I went to school just down the road from there even though I'm from the south side....the dogs go round in pairs up there...lol lol

Mint Sauce

The local on a Saturday night can be quite an eye opener alright.

Feckoffcup

Op how did you find Afghanistan Egypt or Iraq? Any decent places you visited there? Was it expensive?
It's not norm , "where did you go on holidays?" "Sunning myself in kabul".

Cina

Thread just feels like an excuse for op to brag about where he's been.

Aineoil

During the Gulf War in Saudi Arabia a group of us decided to camp out in a wadi. I can't even remember where it was, but I still have

photos of the trip. On the car trip to the wadi we were stopped by armed men with rifles. They demanded to see our igamas which they

read upside down. We camped out in the wadi that night. Next morning we were awoken by an old Arab man who accused us of stealing

his sheep. There was a nurse with us that spoke some Arabic, so that's how we knew he thought we had stolen his sheep. They didn't even

look like sheep more like goats. We were in our twenties and very clueless.

punisher5112

Talaght

punisher5112

Ballymum

Greybottle

Dangerous - - Siberia in the mid 90s, Bangui in the Central African Republic during elections and Kurdistan during some other political violence. Turkish police and army were out to kill and maim people.

Exotic - - Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Romania when Ceaucescu was in power, Siberia in the 90s and driving through the Tenere desert.

JenovaProject

Dangerous..Butlins
Exotic..Butlins
Remote..Butlins

oulfecker

Feckoffcup wrote: »

Op how did you find Afghanistan Egypt or Iraq? Any decent places you visited there? Was it expensive?
It's not norm , "where did you go on holidays?" "Sunning myself in kabul".

I went to Kabul in Afghanistan from Dubai while I was on holidays there for a few weeks. The place was a rundown shíte hole TBH.

There were the typical stereotypes around: bearded men with turbans and women wearing the burqa.

Also, I nearly broke my ankle with the amount of potholes on the pavements. The jacks were nothing but a hole in the ground.

There were armoured police and military vehicles patrolling the streets all of the time. It reminded me of Belfast in 1972.

The hotel wasn't exactly the Shelbourne either.

Having said all that, the Afghan people are among the nicest people I have ever met. The food was delicious and clean. The men make it from scratch in the stalls.

I also visited the remnants of the Bamiyan Buddhas, which was quite interesting considering I remember when they were destroyed.

There was very little terrorist activity on the weekend I was there.

I also noticed that the most popular vehicles in Kabul were most definitely 1995-2003 Toyota models.

Aineoil

Aineoil wrote: »

During the Gulf War in Saudi Arabia a group of us decided to camp out in a wadi.

I hope someone said "it's not your wadi, it's myyyyyyyy..."

Don Kiddick

gifted wrote: »

I went to school just down the road from there even though I'm from the south side....the dogs go round in pairs up there...lol lol

The basketball all Ireland finals were held there a few years in Scoil MacSuibhne as they called it up there (Terence McSwiney college)
Coming out after beating the local team we had stones thrown at us by the pupils....we had an ex Kerry footballer coaching us and he turned around and shouted "Don... don't you fckin dare retaliate'...he was already too late

Nettle Soup

oulfecker wrote: »

I just thought I'd register to post this for the craic:

What are the most dangerous, exotic or remote places you have ever visited?

Mine are as follows:

Dangerous:

Afghanistan - once

Egypt - four times

Iran - twice

Iraq - once

Israel/West Bank - four times

Gaza - once on aid work

North Korea - once on a tour of Pyongyang in 2015 from Beijing

Saudi Arabia - three times

Ukraine - five times

Impressive list alright. Did you get in any tricky situations?

I was in Port Moresby once. A constant air of menace. Never again.

oulfecker

oulfecker wrote: »

Dangerous:

I'm not quite sure many of them were 'dangerous' exactly. I've been to countries/cities which were considered trouble spots but I've never had any serious issues.

Israel was interesting for the security presence. Thailand during the military takeover. Moscow in 1992 because of the criminal elements, and communist marching in the streets.

But TBH I found most places to be quite careful with the expats/tourists community.

I did find North Africa, in particular, Algeria very dodgy and didn't travel much alone.

Exotic:

hmm.. Japan definitely
India.
Taiwan (but only because it was so different to mainland China.)
Cambodia once outside the cities. Vietnam is stunningly beautiful.

remote

Not really my kind of destination (I prefer populated areas), but Inner Mongolia, especially the Ordos desert region. Creepy at night though.

Tzardine

Lived and worked in Kuwait / Iraq during the war for just under 2 years. Worked as a contractor for the US.

Great experience, but quite dodgy at times.

Once took a ride through Iraq in the back of a burger king trailer.

Vladimir Poontang

oulfecker wrote: »

I just thought I'd register to post this for the craic:

What are the most dangerous, exotic or remote places you have ever visited?

Mine are as follows:

Dangerous:


Iran - twice

What was dangerous about Iran?

oulfecker

Vladimir Poontang wrote: »

What was dangerous about Iran?

I just felt that because I was a westerner I wouldn't be welcome. However, I was proven wrong and had great sights to see in Tehran and Ishfahan.

Vladimir Poontang

oulfecker wrote: »

I just felt that because I was a westerner I wouldn't be welcome. However, I was proven wrong and had great sights to see in Tehran and Ishfahan.

Yeah it seems to be the feedback you get from everyone that visits there. Very friendly warm people.

magentis

punisher5112 wrote: »

Talaght

It's got so bad out there,someone stole the second L.

YFlyer

O'Malley Park.

smurgen

Cuba.about at strange a place as i want to visit too.

jrkb

Leitrim

Andrewf20

A few for me:

Ushuaia at the bottom of Argentina.

Summit of Cotopaxi in ecuador. A reasonably dangerous trek with small crevasses and risks of ice fall.

W trail in Torres del Paine in Patagonia. Most awesome scenery ever.

Bhutan

Summit of christianartindar, Iceland.

Stayed with a Nepalese family in the bowels of nepal about 20 miles from pokhara. They was an insect there that literally made a constant high pitch (1 kHz) noise. Would drive you mad eventually if you were near it.

Nebraska, pretty dead empty expanses abound.

shaunr68

Dangerous

Driving a motorhome to Russia, navigating the notorious Moscow gridlock at rush hour in a large right hand drive vehicle, trying to find a campsite on the other side of the city in a blizzard. We had no idea whether the campsite was even open or not..

Bosnia and Serbia I thought would be ropey but the people were great.

Gambia in the midst of a military coup in 1994.

Warrington on a certain day in 1993.

Oh, and Glasgow.

Exotic
Cuba

Remote
Hiked the Knivskjellodden trail to the northernmost point in Norway, looking out over the Barents Sea and for a few minutes I was the most northerly person on the European continent.

https://www.visitnorway.com/listings/knivskjellodden/131029/

punisher5112

magentis wrote: »

It's got so bad out there,someone stole the second L.

You're right....
I was going for tala but dang auto correct.....

punisher5112

Anyone say Limerick

snowflaker

Great Wall of China

cantdecide

corner of hells wrote: »

Bingo in the Cootehill community centre , pretty certain the Banjo player out of deliverance was playing in the background.

There's more places than that. Shur they had to create a sign for it...

Vladimir Poontang

punisher5112 wrote: »

Anyone say Limerick

yawn

London, Kentucky and Corbin, Kentucky. Saw some actual hillbillies with missing teeth and driving a pickup truck. Real Deliverance stuff. :pac:

Then a road trip through West Virginia with some amazing views, but could easily get stranded there for a while if anything went wrong.